A survivor of child sexual abuse has appealed to Elon Musk to stop links to images of her abuse from being shared on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The woman, known as Zora to protect her identity, told reporters that finding out her abuse images are still being traded more than 20 years later has left her angry and helpless.
“Hearing that my abuse, and the abuse of so many others, is still being circulated and commodified here is infuriating,” Zora said. “Every time someone sells or shares child abuse material, they directly fuel the original, horrific abuse.”
According to BBC investigators, working with the hacktivist group Anonymous, they found a trader using X to advertise “VIP packages” of child sexual abuse material. The content was being sold through Telegram and linked to a bank account in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Among the files were images of Zora, whose abuse was first shared when she was a child. “My body is not a commodity. It never has been, and it never will be,” she said. “Those who distribute this material are not passive bystanders, they are complicit perpetrators.”
Investigators say the trader operated more than 100 almost-identical X accounts. Whenever one was taken down, another would appear. The trader even messaged an activist saying he had “baby, kids young 7-12” and claimed some of the content showed rape.
Experts from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection confirmed that thousands of images were available through the account. “When we looked at all the different images in the collages, I would say there were thousands,” said Lloyd Richardson, the center’s director of technology.
Zora, who has tried to rebuild her life, said stalkers have found and threatened her over the years. “I have tried over the years to overcome my past and not let it determine my future, but perpetrators and stalkers still find a way to view this filth,” she said.
X said in a statement that it has “zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation” and continues to “invest in advanced detection to take swift action against content and accounts that violate our rules.” Telegram also said it has banned more than 565,000 groups and channels tied to child abuse this year and employs more than a thousand moderators to monitor content.
But activists say platforms must do more to stop abusers from returning with new accounts. “It’s great that we can send a takedown notice, and they remove the account, but that’s the bare minimum,” Richardson said.
Zora had a direct message for Musk: “Our abuse is being shared, traded, and sold on the app you own. If you would act without hesitation to protect your own children, I beg you to do the same for the rest of us. The time to act is now.”
