Twitter is getting sued by a child victim of sexual abuse and exploitation. The minor claims the social media platform knew about the exploited content a year ago, but didn’t remove it. Last week, a minor, John Doe, and his mother filed a lawsuit against Twitter, alleging that the social networking giant knowingly distributed his abuse videos and refused to remove them.
The circulated videos showed graphic images of his sex abuse when he was 13 years old, created by sex traffickers. At 16 years old, he and his mother found out about the videos and contacted authorities and Twitter. According to Twitter’s policies, their system should be able to detect and stop illegal material like child sex abuse.
His mother, Jane Doe, sent an email to Twitter on Jan. 26, 2020, demanding the videos be taken down immediately. However, two days later, Twitter replied saying that “We’ve reviewed the content, and didn’t find a violation of our policies, so no action will be taken at this time.”
John Doe is seeking damages under the federal Trafficking Victims’ Protection Reauthorization Act.