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 identify) who lives in america and was first abused greater than 20 years in the past.

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

X says it has “zero tolerance for youngster sexual abuse materials” and tackling those that exploit youngsters stays “a high 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 International Baby Security Institute.

The fabric was amongst a cache of 1000’s of comparable photographs and movies being provided on the market on an X account. We obtained 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 change into notorious amongst paedophiles who accumulate and commerce such content material. Many different victims face the identical state of affairs, as pictures of abuse proceed to flow into right now.

Zora is angered the commerce continues to this present day.

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

“Those that distribute this materials aren’t 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 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), acquired greater than 20 million necessary reviews from tech corporations 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 regulation enforcement.

We approached “hacktivist” group Nameless, whose members are attempting to fight the commerce in youngster abuse pictures on X. Considered one of them instructed 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 youngster 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 youngster 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 recordsdata of abuse on the market to paedophiles around the globe.

The Nameless activist had been working to report this dealer’s a number of accounts on X, in order that they could possibly be eliminated by the platform’s moderation methods. 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 immediately utilizing Telegram, the dealer had replied saying he had 1000’s of movies and pictures on the market.

“I’ve child. Youngsters younger 7-12”, he wrote in messages to the activist seen by the BBC. He additionally defined that among the content material confirmed youngster rape.

We obtained 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 Baby Safety (CCCP) in Winnipeg – who work alongside regulation 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 know-how. “Once we checked out all of the completely different pictures within the collages, I might say there have been 1000’s.”

Among the many recordsdata 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 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 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 info and a web based fee 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 pictures had been being marketed is a technique utilized by a whole bunch 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 youngster abuse pictures however will be cropped so they don’t seem to be obscene.

Elon Musk stated eradicating youngster sexual abuse materials was his “high precedence” when he took over X, then often called Twitter, in 2022.

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

“It is nice that we are able to 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 just a few days with a brand new account, he says.

X instructed us it has “zero tolerance” for youngster sexual exploitation. “We frequently 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 regulation 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 problem.

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

Once we instructed 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. When you would act with out hesitation to guard your personal youngsters, I encourage 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 help is accessible through the BBC Action Line