US magistrate says Twitter must face child pornography lawsuit

Twitter Inc. must face a federal lawsuit in which attorneys for two boys say the platform financially benefited from publishing child sex abuse material, the chief magistrate judge of the Northern District ruled Thursday.

"The court finds that these allegations are sufficient to allege an ongoing pattern of conduct amounting to a tacit agreement with the perpetrators in this case to allow them to post videos and photographs it knew or should have known were related to sex trafficking without blocking their accounts or the Videos," wrote Chief Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero. "Therefore, plaintiffs have adequately alleged participation in a venture under Section 1595 in support of their beneficiary liability claim against Twitter."

Spero's order stems from a complaint filed against Twitter at the beginning of the year by attorneys who allege their clients were coerced and blackmailed into sending sexually explicit material to Snapchat users when they were 13. The lawsuit alleges those videos surfaced on Twitter three years later when the boys were in high school. The lawsuit says that when the mother of one of the boys contacted the Department of Homeland Security, Twitter agreed to remove the videos. Doe v. Twitter Inc., 3:21-cv-485 (N.D. Cal., filed Jan. 20, 2021).

Spero dismissed several claims for product liability, negligence, distribution of sexually explicit content, invasion of privacy and unfair competition under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Spero also dismissed the boys' claim for direct trafficking, finding that the images on the internet do not meet the elements of actual direct sex trafficking. Nor do the boys allege any solicitation by Twitter, Spero observed.

Cooley LLP partner Michael G. Rhodes, lead counsel for Twitter, declined to comment, and forwarded all inquiries to Twitter. A representative for Twitter could not be reached for comment by Thursday afternoon.

Peter Gentala of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation in Washington D.C., who leads the plaintiffs' team with Lisa Haba of The Haba Law Firm in Florida, said the ruling was a positive step, especially because it has been tough for sex abuse survivors to sue social media companies because of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that largely shields them from liability for content posted to their platforms by third parties.

"This is a significant ruling because it makes it clear that there is accountability when an online platform knows that sexual abuse images are being disseminated, and it continues to allow that material to remain on the platform," Gentala said. "The allegations that Judge Spero took very seriously in this case have to do with how Twitter benefits financially from child sex abuse images on its platform. Significant user engagement is the bread and butter of how social media companies make their money."