Twitter Sex Trafficking Lawsuit May Finally Expose Tony Ortega’s Backpage Lie

Tony Ortega

Last week a federal lawsuit was filed against social media giant Twitter which carries with it potentially seismic repercussions for platforms promoting sex trafficking (such as Backpage) and those who would publicly advocate on their behalf (such as notorious Backpage shill Tony Ortega).

The suit, filed Wednesday on behalf of a teenager, claims that the company waited for days to remove sexually graphic videos of himself and another minor posted to its platform by sex traffickers.

The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California was done so on behalf of the minor, who is identified in the legal filing as a 16-year-old Florida resident. Withholding the child’s real name for privacy concerns, the plaintiff has been referenced in the filing by the name John Doe.

According to the complaint, Doe was harmed by Twitter videos depicting his sexual abuse. The lawsuit accuses Twitter, which has over 300 million users, of refusing to remove child pornography videos depicting the minor’s sexual abuse when the company was notified by the plaintiff and his parents.

Our readers should be reminded that refusing to remove sexually explicit material involving minors from their platform was one of the key complaints against Backpage in the years leading up to its forcible seizure by federal authorities.

Furthermore, it was this very policy which Tony Ortega argued ad nauseam fell under so-called ‘protected speech’ laws as this excuse was long Tony Ortega’s go-to as he sought to provide aid and political cover for the corporate sex traffickers paying his salary as their unofficial Propagandist-At-Large.

This legal action places Backpage and its willing henchmen like Ortega in the path of a potential new legal precedent which would expose the deception at the heart of Ortega’s pro-Backpage argument to devastating effect.

The lawsuit reads in part:

“This lawsuit seeks to shine a light on how Twitter has enabled and profited from [child sexual abuse material] on its platform, choosing profits over people, money over the safety of children, and wealth at the expense of human freedom and human dignity.”

How one could read the complaint above and not instantly realize this is the exact sort of abuse Tony Ortega sold his soul to defended Backpage against is beyond us.

In striking parallel to a number of pending cases against Backpage, the lawsuit goes on to contend that Twitter continues permits “numerous profiles, posts, comments, and other content either advertising, soliciting, or depicting” child sexual abuse.

If this trial goes the way many in the legal community expect, the implications for Tony Ortega, Backpage et al could be nothing short of devastating. We here at the blog will continue to keep you updated as to how this case is decided.