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This week, some of the biggest tech companies found out that Section 230 immunity doesn’t shield them from some of the biggest complaints alleging that social media platform designs are defective and harming children and teen users.

On Tuesday, US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that discovery can proceed in a lawsuit documenting individual cases involving hundreds of children and teens allegedly harmed by social media use across 30 states. Their complaint alleged that tech companies were guilty of negligently operating platforms with many design defects—including lack of parental controls, insufficient age verification, complicated account deletion processes, appearance-altering filters, and requirements forcing users to log in to report child sexual abuse materials (CSAM)—and failed to warn young users and their parents about those defects.

Defendants are companies operating “the world’s most used social media platforms: Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, Google’s YouTube, ByteDance’s TikTok, and Snapchat.” All of these companies moved to dismiss the multi-district litigation entirely, hoping that the First Amendment and Section 230 immunity would effectively bar all the plaintiffs’ claims—including, apparently, claims that companies ignored addressing when moving to dismiss.

“Defendants were adamant that the entirety of the complaint should be dismissed under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 and the First Amendment,” Gonzalez Rogers wrote.

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A federal jury deadlocked on prostitution-related charges filed against former New Times editor Michael Lacey, but found him guilty Thursday of a financial crime related to the classified advertising website he co-founded, Backpage.com, that prosecutors said was designed to enable and profit from prostitution.

The jury found two former Backpage executives, Scott Spear and John “Jed” Brunst, guilty of using the website to facilitate prostitution. The jury also found the two guilty of some financial crimes, but not guilty of others.

Lacey pursed his lips and shook his head as the jury exited the courtroom after the reading of the verdict. With the litany of charges, it took more than 30 minutes to go through them all.

The single count Lacey was convicted of involved a January 2017 transfer of $16.5 million to a bank in Hungary. The money-laundering charge, according to the indictment, said Lacey did so knowing the money represented the gains from illegal activity and that he attempted to conceal it.

Two former Backpage employees who were involved in moderating the ads, Andrew Padilla and Joye Vaught, were found not guilty on all prostitution-related charges.

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Our 2023 Report Cards on Child and Youth Sex Trafficking are out! See what grade your state received. Then download and read your state’s full report. Then share your state’s report with your legislators. TAKE ACTION.

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TUSCALOOSA COUNTY, Ala. (WBRC) – Five men have been arrested after an undercover operation by the West Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force.

Authorities said the men were taken into custody in an operation that targeted adults who attempted to meet minors for the purpose of sex.

The investigation was done last week by members of the task force and Covenant Rescue Group, a non-profit organization based in Jefferson County.

The following men were charged with electronic solicitation of a child and traveling to meet a child for a unlawful sex act:

• Benjamin Justin Collier III, 25, of Birmingham
• Raymond Eugene Clark, 28, of Tuscaloosa
• George Prater, 45, of Port Arthur, Texas
• Terry Leon Wright, 25, of Tuscaloosa
• Malicah Santeaugo McKinney, 20, of Northport

THEY MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE.

It’s 2023. Almost 2024. You can no longer sit on the sidelines. We must ALL do something.

The holidays are upon us. Shop our WARRIORS merchandise. proceeds support victims and survivors of all forms of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

Goodies galore from holiday ornaments, drink ware, apparel and household items!

You have no excuse!  BUY WARRIORS for ALL of your gift needs and do good at the same time. 

Thank you.

Former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard has been found guilty on four counts of sexual assault after five women testified he used a private bedroom suite in his company headquarters to assault them.

The verdict by a Toronto jury came midday on Sunday after five days of deliberation. Nygard, 82, was acquitted of one of five counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement.

Over the six week trial, the court heard graphic and emotional testimony from five women, whose identities are protected by a publication ban, about assaults that occurred from the 1980s to the mid-2000s.

Prosecutors had said that Nygard met the women in social settings and invited them to the headquarters of his clothing empire in Toronto. All of the “tours” ended in his bedroom suite. The room had a bed, televisions and a jacuzzi. Prosecutors say the doors didn’t have handles and the locks were controlled by Nygard.

In one instance, a woman testified that she was only 16 years old when an older man she was dating brought her to Nygard’s headquarters. She said Nygard sexually assaulted her and when she was leaving the building, a woman handed her an emergency contraceptive pill.

Another broke down during her testimony, telling the court she worried any complaint against him would be dismissed. “He’s so wealthy and so powerful, who would believe me?”

Nygard told the court that he couldn’t recall meeting four of the five women, nor did he remember having any interaction with them decades ago. He also denied allegations of sexual misconduct and sexual assault, telling a court the behaviour was out of character.

“My position is that I would not have conducted myself in that kind of manner,” Nygard testified. He also told the court no one could have been locked inside his private suite.

In closing arguments last week, Crown prosector Ana Serban said Nygard’s testimony was “unreliable” and lacked credibility.

Nygard’s lawyer Brian Greenspan argued that the five women lacked credibility because of the “fatal flaws and lack of testimonial trustworthiness” of their allegations. On Sunday, Greenspan said he was weighing the possibility of appealing the verdict.

Born in Finland, Nygard grew up in Manitoba, eventually running his namesake clothing companies and becoming one of Canada’s wealthiest people. He stepped down as chairman of the company after the FBI and police raided his offices in New York City in 2020. In the years since, the company has filed for bankruptcy and entered into receivership.

Canadian police arrested Nygard in late 2020 at the request of the US.

In addition to the guilty verdict on Sunday, Nygard faces criminal charges in three other jurisdictions.

He stands accused of sexual assault and forcible confinement in Quebec and Manitoba, with the allegations dating back to the 1990s. He is also facing charges in the US.

He is fighting extradition to the US where he faces a lawsuit brought by 57 women – including 18 Canadians – which alleges that Nygard used violence, intimidation, bribery and company employees to lure victims and avoid accountability for decades. Nygard has denied all allegations.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) called on the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday to issue a subpoena against the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, with the goal of obtaining a list of passengers that traveled aboard the convicted sex offender’s infamous plane.

Blackburn, 71, made the demand during a Senate hearing related to the authorization of subpoenas for Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas as part of an ethics probe which the Tennessee Republican decried as a “charade.”

The senator argued that the American people would be better served knowing more about the potential participants in Epstein’s “horrific conduct.”

“And since we’re in the business of issuing subpoenas now, here are a few more that I’ve filed. A subpoena to Jeffrey Epstein’s estate to provide the flight logs for his private plane,” Blackburn said.

“Given the numerous allegations of human trafficking and abuse surrounding Mr. Epstein, we’ve got to identify everyone who could have participated in his horrific conduct.”

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Missouri increased tracking efforts after report found 978 foster children went missing in 2019.

Sharday Hamilton, a 28-year-old advocate for foster youth, homeless youth and runaways, still bears her own scars from running.

There’s one near her left knee. She got it as a little girl, running away from her foster mother, who was trying to hit her with a bag of frozen food but who sometimes used a skillet or a baseball bat. There are the burns she suffered when she was forced to sit on a hot stove.

Caseworkers and school counselors didn’t visit Hamilton’s foster home in Harvey, Illinois, or check in with her often enough, recalled Hamilton, now a mentor at the National Network for Youth, a nonprofit focused on youth homelessness. And when they did, she said, they missed signs of abuse. “The system failed me,” she said.

Hamilton sometimes spent nights at her friends’ houses to avoid the violence. Many foster kids in similar situations also flee — and some of them don’t come back for weeks, months or ever. Tens of thousands simply disappear from the foster care system, according to several recent reports, putting them beyond the state’s protection and at high risk of sexual exploitation.

Under federal law, state social service agencies must submit a report to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, a nonprofit organization established by Congress in 1984, when a child under their care goes missing. They also are required to notify law enforcement, who report missing children to the National Crime Information Center.

But an audit published earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that across 46 states, state agencies failed to report an estimated 34,800 cases of missing foster kids. Cases include children who ran away multiple times. The average age, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, was 15.

“When it comes to teenagers specifically, most child welfare systems just don’t have the right service array, because systems are often built for babies and younger children,” said consultant and attorney Lisa Pilnik, director of Child & Family Policy Associates, a child welfare consulting and research firm.

“We don’t have enough family placements, and we don’t have family placements that are equipped to meet the needs of teenagers,” she said.

‘A lot of difficulties’

Teens often run away or go missing more than once during their time in foster care. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children report found that about 40% of foster children who were reported missing went missing multiple times — on average, four times — while in state care.

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg “ignored” top executives who called for bolder actions and more resources to protect users, especially kids and teens, even as the company faced mounting scrutiny over its safety practices, a newly unredacted legal complaint alleges.

Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, and Instagram head Adam Mosseri in 2021 directly urged their fellow executives, including Zuckerberg, to devote more staff and resources to address bullying, harassment and suicide prevention, according to an updated 102-page complaint filed this week by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell (D).

Campbell is one of 42 attorneys general who last month filed lawsuits accusing Meta of endangering children by building addictive features into its popular social media platforms, Instagram and Facebook.

According to the new court filing, Clegg passed the request for resources to Zuckerberg, calling for “additional investment to strengthen our position” in the area. Zuckerberg “ignored Clegg’s request for months,” the complaint alleges, even as “Meta’s leadership continued to espouse the need to invest in well-being.” Eventually, Meta chief financial officer Susan Li shot down the proposal, saying that staffing at the company was too “constrained,” according to the filing.

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