WASHINGTON, DC (May 18, 2026) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) issued a statement about the U.S. Supreme Court decision not to review a shocking 9th Circuit Court ruling in John Doe #1 and John Doe #2 v. Twitter, Inc. that held Section 230 provided Twitter (now X) with legal immunity for knowingly possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and for knowingly benefitting from a sex trafficking venture.
“We are disappointed that the Supreme Court didn’t take our case. It raises the question: Does our country really allow corporations to commit federal crimes, like knowingly distributing child sexual abuse material, without consequences? If this can happen to our clients without accountability, every parent and every American should be asking what protections children truly have online today,” said Dani Pinter, Chief Legal Officer and Director of the Law Center, National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“SCOTUS has declined to weigh in on Section 230 immunity for 30 years, so Congress must address Section 230 reform. Congress must clarify that it did not intend for tech companies to have legal immunity for harms they facilitate on their platforms or their own criminal conduct in knowingly possessing and distributing CSAM. Congress should Sunset Section 230 and pass the Kids Online Safety Act, among other actions, to demand accountability from social media companies and create meaningful protections for children online.
“Section 230 continues to stand in the way of justice for victims of sexual abuse and exploitation, despite the fact that tech platforms have knowingly facilitated these abuses. No company, online or otherwise, should be above the law.
“For our clients, this is not the end of the road. We are still moving forward in our lawsuit against Twitter on products liability claims and claims that it failed to report child sexual abuse material on its platform,” Pinter said.
Plaintiffs John Doe #1 and John Doe #2 together were solicited and recruited for sex trafficking as minors. After they escaped from the manipulation, child sexual abuse material depicting them was disseminated on Twitter while they were still children. When Twitter was alerted to this fact and the ages of the children, Twitter refused to remove the illegal material and instead continued to distribute and profit from the sexual abuse of the children. Twitter even reported back to John Doe #1 that it had reviewed the video and decided that it did not violate their policies and would not be taken down. This resulted in the child sexual abuse material accumulating over 167,000 views before it was finally removed through federal law enforcement intervention.