Little one intercourse abuse sufferer begs Elon Musk to take away hyperlinks to her photos

A sufferer of kid sexual abuse has begged Elon Musk to cease hyperlinks providing photos 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 identify) who lives in the US and was first abused greater than 20 years in the past.

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

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

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

The fabric was amongst a cache of 1000’s of comparable images and movies being supplied on the market on an X account. We received in touch with the dealer via 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 set of photos of her abuse have turn out to be notorious amongst paedophiles who gather and commerce such content material. Many different victims face the identical state of affairs, as photos of abuse proceed to flow into at present.

Zora is angered the commerce continues to at the present time.

“My physique will not be a commodity. It by no means has been, and it by no means might be,” she says.

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

Photographs of Zora’s abuse have been initially solely accessible on the so-called darkish internet, however she now has to stay 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 yr the US Nationwide Middle for Lacking and Exploited Youngsters (NCMEC), obtained greater than 20 million necessary studies from tech corporations about incidents of kid sexual abuse materials (CSAM) – unlawful photos 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 photos on X. Certainly one of them instructed us the state of affairs was as unhealthy as ever.

They tipped us off a couple of single account on X. It used a photograph of the pinnacle 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 primarily based in Indonesia and was providing “VIP packages”, collections of photos 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, in order that they might be eliminated by the platform’s moderation programs. However every time one account was eliminated, he instructed us, one other new one would change it.

The dealer appeared to have been overseeing greater than 100 almost-identical accounts. The activist instructed us that when he had contacted the dealer straight utilizing Telegram, the dealer had replied saying he had 1000’s 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 few of the content material confirmed baby rape.

We received in contact with the dealer ourselves.

He offered hyperlinks to samples of fabric, which we didn’t open or view. As a substitute, we contacted specialists from the Canadian Centre for Little one 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 – primarily a collage of the fabric he had accessible of all of the totally different victims,” defined Lloyd Richardson, the CCCP’s director of expertise. “After we checked out all of the totally different photos within the collages, I’d say there have been 1000’s.”

Among the many information have been photos 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 offered the world over.

Zora instructed 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 solution to view this filth.”

As she grew older, stalkers uncovered Zora’s identification, contacting and threatening her on-line. She says she feels “bullied over a criminal offense that robbed me of my childhood”.

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

The dealer despatched us his financial institution info and a web-based cost account, each had the identical identify listed because the account holder.

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

We tracked down a person with the identical identify 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 search out out what had occurred. He denied information of the opposite checking account or the cash transfers.

We can not know for sure if, and to what extent, he could also be concerned and in consequence we aren’t naming him.

The best way Zora’s photos have been being marketed is a technique utilized by tons of of merchants the world over, our investigation discovered.

Posts on X use totally different hashtags acquainted to paedophiles. Photographs that seem on the platform are sometimes taken from identified baby abuse photos however might 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 referred to as Twitter, in 2022.

Social media platforms generally, not simply X, might do rather more to stop criminals posting repeatedly on this approach, says Lloyd Richardson from the CCCP.

“It is nice that we are able to ship a takedown discover [to social media platforms], and so they 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 instructed us it has “zero tolerance” for baby sexual exploitation. “We regularly put money into superior detection to allow us to take swift motion towards content material and accounts that violate our guidelines,” stated a spokesperson.

The platform instructed us it really works “carefully with the Nationwide Middle 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 up to now in 2025.”

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

“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.

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

In case you are affected by any of the problems raised on this report, assist and assist is obtainable by way of the BBC Motion Line