Suit Alleges Telegram, Scruff Ignore Sexual Trafficking of Kids on Their Platforms

The instant-messaging app Telegram and online dating app Scruff “acted in dereliction of their duties as internet service providers by failing to adequately monitor and police against” the sexual trafficking and exploitation of young children on their platforms, alleged a complaint Wednesday (docket 2:23-cv-02519) in U.S. District Court for South Carolina in Charleston. The plaintiff filed it under the pseudonym Jane Roe on behalf of her five-year-old son. Telegram and Scruff “are fully aware of the ongoing sexual abuse of children through the use of their social media products,” yet they refuse to comply with the requirements of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, it said. Telegram and Scruff have had “actual knowledge that sexual predators” were using their apps, but did little to stop enabling them, it said. Though Section 230 “has been credited with allowing the internet to flourish and enabling innovation in the online space,” it also enabled online platforms “to avoid responsibility for harmful or illegal content, such as hate speech, cyberbullying, and sex trafficking,” said the complaint. “Section 230 is no shield” for the conduct of Telegram and Scruff in this case, but plaintiff Roe anticipates that they will raise Section 230 in their defense, it said. Neither platform responded to requests for comment Thursday.