Child sex abuse victim begs Elon Musk to remove links to her images

A sufferer of kid sexual abuse has begged Elon Musk to cease hyperlinks providing pictures of her abuse being posted on his social media platform X.

“Listening to that my abuse – and the abuse of so many others – remains to be being circulated and commodified right here is infuriating,” says “Zora” (not her actual title) who lives in the USA and was first abused greater than 20 years in the past.

“Each time somebody sells or shares baby abuse materials, they straight gasoline the unique, horrific abuse.”

X says it has “zero tolerance for baby sexual abuse materials” and tackling those that exploit kids stays “a prime precedence”.

The BBC discovered pictures of Zora whereas investigating the worldwide commerce of kid intercourse abuse materials, estimated to be value billions of {dollars} by Childlight, the World Baby Security Institute.

The fabric was amongst a cache of hundreds of comparable photographs and movies being supplied on the market on an X account. We bought involved with the dealer by way of the messaging app Telegram, and this led us to a checking account linked to an individual in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Zora was first abused by a member of the family. A group of pictures of her abuse have grow to be notorious amongst paedophiles who acquire and commerce such content material. Many different victims face the identical state of affairs, as pictures of abuse proceed to flow into right this moment.

Zora is angered the commerce continues to this present day.

“My physique just isn’t a commodity. It by no means has been, and it by no means can be,” she says.

“Those that distribute this materials are usually not passive bystanders, they’re complicit perpetrators.”

Pictures of Zora’s abuse had been initially solely accessible on the so-called darkish internet, however she now has to reside with the truth that hyperlinks are being overtly promoted on X.

Social media platforms are attempting to rid their platforms of unlawful materials, however the scale of the issue is big.

Final 12 months the US Nationwide Heart for Lacking and Exploited Youngsters (NCMEC), obtained greater than 20 million obligatory stories from tech firms about incidents of kid sexual abuse materials (CSAM) – unlawful pictures and movies on their platforms.

NCMEC makes an attempt to determine victims and perpetrators, the organisation then contacts legislation enforcement.

We approached “hacktivist” group Nameless, whose members are attempting to fight the commerce in baby abuse pictures on X. One among them informed us the state of affairs was as dangerous as ever.

They tipped us off a couple of single account on X. It used a photograph of the top and shoulders of an actual baby as its avatar. There was nothing obscene about it.

However the phrases and emojis within the account’s bio made it clear the proprietor was promoting baby sexual abuse materials and there was a hyperlink to an account on the messaging app Telegram.

The dealer gave the impression to be based mostly in Indonesia and was providing “VIP packages”, collections of pictures and video information of abuse on the market to paedophiles all over the world.

The Nameless activist had been working to report this dealer’s a number of accounts on X, so that they may very well be eliminated by the platform’s moderation techniques. However every time one account was eliminated, he informed us, one other new one would substitute it.

The dealer appeared to have been overseeing greater than 100 almost-identical accounts. The activist informed us that when he had contacted the dealer straight utilizing Telegram, the dealer had replied saying he had hundreds of movies and pictures on the market.

“I’ve child. Children younger 7-12”, he wrote in messages to the activist seen by the BBC. He additionally defined that a number of the content material confirmed baby rape.

We bought in contact with the dealer ourselves.

He supplied hyperlinks to samples of fabric, which we didn’t open or view. As a substitute, we contacted specialists from the Canadian Centre for Baby Safety (CCCP) in Winnipeg – who work alongside legislation enforcement and are legally permitted to view such content material.

“The Telegram account was, for lack of a greater time period, a taster pack – basically a collage of the fabric he had accessible of all of the completely different victims,” defined Lloyd Richardson, the CCCP’s director of expertise. “Once we checked out all of the completely different pictures within the collages, I’d say there have been hundreds.”

Among the many information had been pictures of Zora.

Her abuser within the US was prosecuted and imprisoned a few years in the past, however not earlier than footage of the abuse had already been shared and bought internationally.

Zora informed us: “I’ve tried through the years to beat my previous and never let it decide my future, however perpetrators and stalkers nonetheless discover a approach to view this filth.”

As she grew older, stalkers uncovered Zora’s id, contacting and threatening her on-line. She says she feels “bullied over against the law that robbed me of my childhood”.

To determine the dealer promoting photographs of Zora, we posed as a purchaser.

The dealer despatched us his financial institution data and a web based fee account, each had the identical title listed because the account holder.

The Nameless activist had found this title was additionally linked to 2 cash transfers and one other checking account.

We tracked down a person with the identical title as that listed on the accounts, to an deal with on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

A producer working within the metropolis for the BBC World Service went to go to the deal with and confronted a person on the premises who, when offered with the proof, stated he was shocked.

“I do not know something about this,” he stated.

The person confirmed one of many financial institution accounts was his and said it was created for a single mortgage-related transaction. He stated he had not used the account since and that he would contact his financial institution to seek out out what had occurred. He denied information of the opposite checking account or the cash transfers.

We can’t know for sure if, and to what extent, he could also be concerned and because of this we aren’t naming him.

The way in which Zora’s pictures had been being marketed is a technique utilized by a whole lot of merchants internationally, our investigation discovered.

Posts on X use completely different hashtags acquainted to paedophiles. Pictures that seem on the platform are sometimes taken from recognized baby abuse pictures however may be cropped so they don’t seem to be obscene.

Elon Musk stated eradicating baby sexual abuse materials was his “prime precedence” when he took over X, then often known as Twitter, in 2022.

Social media platforms on the whole, not simply X, might do way more to forestall criminals posting repeatedly on this means, says Lloyd Richardson from the CCCP.

“It is nice that we will ship a takedown discover [to social media platforms], they usually take away the account, however that is the naked minimal.”

The issue is that customers can come again onto the platforms in a couple of days with a brand new account, he says.

X informed us it has “zero tolerance” for baby sexual exploitation. “We regularly put money into superior detection to allow us to take swift motion in opposition to content material and accounts that violate our guidelines,” stated a spokesperson.

The platform informed us it really works “carefully with the Nationwide Heart for Lacking and Exploited Youngsters (NCMEC) and helps legislation enforcement efforts to prosecute these heinous crimes”.

Telegram stated: “All channels are moderated, and greater than 565,000 teams and channels associated to the unfold of CSAM have been banned to this point in 2025.”

The platform stated it has greater than a thousand moderators engaged on the problem.

“Telegram proactively displays public content material throughout the platform and removes objectionable materials earlier than it might probably attain customers or be reported,” a spokesperson stated.

Once we informed Zora her photographs had been being traded utilizing X, she had this message for the platform’s proprietor, Elon Musk: “Our abuse is being shared, traded, and bought on the app you personal. For those who would act with out hesitation to guard your personal kids, I urge you to do the identical for the remainder of us. The time to behave is now.”

If you’re affected by any of the problems raised on this report, assist and assist is obtainable through the BBC Action Line