Twitter asks court to dismiss suit alleging it 'knowingly' kept child sex trafficking posts on site

Twitter is asking a Florida court to dismiss a case alleging the social media platform "knowing hosted sexual exploitation material" related to a survivor of a child sex trafficking and didn't remove the content until ordered by the federal government.

The lawsuit filed in January accused Twitter of not taking appropriate action to remove content involving the child in question.

The child and his family argue that Twitter did not remove the explicit content until after the Department of Homeland Security ordered them to do so, nearly nine days after the initial complaint, originally reported by The Epoch Times.

Twitter argues the suit alleges the tech giant's actions make it complicit in the crime.

'Mistakes or delays do not make Twitter a willing participant in a sex trafficking venture as the plaintiff here has alleged," the company said.

The hearing to dismiss the suit is set for June 4.

Twitter argues that under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act it has immunity from legal claims regarding failure to remove content.

The company also says the videos of the child posted on its site were horrible and eventually taken down but that it should not be held responsible due to the time took to remove them from the platform, according to court documents.

The plaintiff argues in the complaint that Twitter: "Knowingly hosted sexual exploitation material, including child sex abuse material (referred to in some instances as child pornography), and allowed human trafficking and the dissemination of child sexual abuse material to continue on its platform." 

The complaint also argues Twitter "therefore profiting from the harmful and exploitative material and the traffic it draws."

The plaintiff says the videos and content in question were viewed 167,000 times and re-tweeted 2,200 times before taken down.

The incident posted on Twitter occurred when the plaintiff was a minor, solicited by unnamed individuals, and recruited for sex trafficking. The minor escaped these individuals, after which they posted content depicting the minor on Twitter.