Twitter slow on child porn but fast to ban FOTF

Twitter has spent the past year policing political opinions on their platform, most recently banning a post from Focus on the Family, all while sexual predators roam freely, posting and sharing child pornography.

I am not an attorney, but I understand the spirit of Section 230 which is to provide liability protection to online companies such as Twitter, Facebook and Google from information that is posted on their platforms, while also providing them protection if they act in “good faith” when removing offensive or objectionable content.

A recent lawsuit filed against Twitter, brings into question whether Twitter views child pornography as offensive or objectionable – a sad commentary considering they have no problem deeming certain biblical content offensive.

As a violence prevention expert for thirty years, which included developing and implementing one of the largest community-based violence prevention programs in 1994 as a violent crime detective, I normally charge a consulting fee for security solutions but here is a free tip for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey:  child pornography is a crime.  That should help you better define what is objectionable.

Considering all the ugliness of evil I have seen up close and personal in my career, the facts of the lawsuit are particularly alarming. The incident started on SnapChat, another social media platform that is widely used by our children as well as predators and human traffickers.  A 13-year-old was “baited” into providing sexual photos, thinking they were sending them to another juvenile but the “juvenile” was sex traffickers posing as kids.  The child was then intimidated into sending videos to stop the perpetrators from sharing the original photos with parents, coaches, schools, etc. 

The trap had been set for this 13-year-old as the sexual predators then posted a Tweet with the sexually explicit photos.  It would be easy for Twitter to focus on this as a single incident.  However, this tweet was shared 167,000 times and then retweeted more than 2,223 times. 

The lawsuit also claims that Twitter profited from this tweet.

I do not see any evidence in this lawsuit that Twitter takes sexual traffickers and predators seriously.  The mother of the 13-year-old victim reached out to Twitter on numerous occasions.  She did everything she should – contacting police, schools, and reaching out anywhere she could for help.

The responses from Twitter were slow (views and re-tweets were still happening).  Then the official response finally came, according to the lawsuit, thanking the mother for reaching out but declaring that they had reviewed the content and didn’t find a violation of their policies so no action would be taken.

I cannot help but question how Twitter can review and remove individuals with politically objectionable viewpoints within hours but their response to child pornography took months and resulted in no action.  That is until the mother was put into contact with a federal agent.  The federal agent reached out to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the child pornography was finally removed.

As expected, Twitter released a statement about their “zero-tolerance for any material that features or promotes child sexual exploitation.”  Really? Too little, too late Mr. Dorsey.  Your statement falls on skeptical ears.  Behaviors speak louder than words.

I think it is also fair to say that we, all of us, have a moral obligation to keep our children safe.  That does not need to be defined in statute, though it is, but is something that should be intrinsic in the mission of every company.

While Twitter seems to function with a heightened vision on political viewpoints, they need to recognize they may have lost sight of their overall mission in keeping their platform safe for all of us – especially our children.

Sexual exploitation and trafficking of our children is a very real problem that has found a base to work from through online portals and social media.  This is a very real culture war that we, as parents, law-enforcement, corporations, and communities need to fight.

So, when we see lawsuits such as Twitter, we should be moved to activism.  We must fight for the protection of our children.  We cannot rely on platforms such as Twitter to keep our kids safe.