Twitter Seeks Dismissal in Sex-Trafficking Lawsuit

A lawsuit accusing Twitter of sex trafficking should be dismissed because the plaintiffs failed to show the company knowingly benefited from criminal sex trafficking under a 2018 law, the platform argued Friday before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (docket 3:21-cv-00485). The Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, a 2018 carve-out of Communications Decency Act Section 230, applies “only where a civil defendant meets the criteria for criminal sex trafficking, which Plaintiffs fail to allege against Twitter in multiple respects,” the company said in its third brief on cross-appeal for review. Two minors in the case have sought to remove videos of them having sex from Twitter. The U.S. District Court in San Francisco said the plaintiffs had an avenue of relief under the 2018 law, allowing them to move forward with trafficking claims but rejecting claims based on distribution of child pornography. Congress made a “deliberate choice” to pass FOSTA with a limited carve-out, holding platforms liable only when they knowingly engage in "criminal" sex trafficking, and this lawsuit doesn’t meet that standard, the company said.