A victim of child sexual abuse, referred to as “Zora,” has appealed to Elon Musk to address the circulation of images depicting her abuse on the social media platform X. Zora, who resides in the United States, was first abused over two decades ago and expressed distress over the ongoing commodification of such abuse. She states that the sale and sharing of child abuse material directly contributes to the exploitation and suffering of victims.
X has stated a commitment to combatting child sexual abuse material, asserting a “zero tolerance” policy and prioritizing the identification and elimination of such content. However, investigations by the BBC uncovered that images of Zora were found among numerous similar materials being traded on X. The investigation identified a trader based in Jakarta, Indonesia, who was reportedly selling collections of abuse images and videos to buyers globally.
Zora’s abuse was initially limited to the dark web but has since become more publicly accessible on X. The volume of illegal content shared on social media is an ongoing concern, with over 20 million reports of child sexual abuse material documented by the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the previous year alone.
The BBC’s investigation involved collaboration with the hacktivist group Anonymous, who are actively working to counteract the trade of child exploitation images. Subsequent attempts at contacting the seller revealed links to multiple accounts and bank transactions, indicating a coordinated effort to distribute illegal content.
Despite X’s claims of proactive monitoring and removal of harmful content, the rapid reemergence of similar accounts keeps the issue persistent. In light of this, Zora urged Musk to take urgent action to protect all victims of sexual abuse, paralleling the protections he would want for his own family.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq587wv4d5go?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss