Texas Supreme Court Rules Facebook Can Be Held Liable For Sex Trafficking On Platform
The Texas Supreme Court has recently ruled that Facebook can be held liable for sex traffickers using the social media platform to prey on children — paving the way for tech companies to be held accountable when platforms are used for criminal acts.
On Friday, the Texas high court said that the social media giant is not a “lawless no-man’s-land” and could be held liable after three lawsuits were earlier raised in the state involving sex traffic victims who reportedly met their pimps through the social media’s messaging functions, the Houston Chronicle first reported.
The #Texas Supreme Court ruled that #Facebook could be held liable if sex traffickers use the platform to prey on children, arguing the #BigTech platform isn’t a “lawless no-man’s-land.” https://t.co/sSQLzcPyzN
— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) June 28, 2021
Facebook is now being sued for negligence and product liability after the plaintiff ruled that the social media was “negligent” and did not attempt to block the sex trafficking activity off its platform.
The lawsuits claimed that Facebook also benefited from the sexual exploitation of trafficking victims.
Facebook, however, argued that it is shielded by the protections of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) — an internet law that states online platforms are not responsible for what people post on their site — and should therefore not be held responsible for what is posted on its platform.
But the Texas Supreme Court said Section 230 doesn’t mean Facebook can operate as a “lawless no-man’s-land.”
“We do not understand Section 230 to ‘create a lawless no-man’s-land on the Internet’ in which states are powerless to impose liability on websites that knowingly or intentionally participate in the evil of online human trafficking,” the majority wrote of the court wrote, according to the Chronicle report.
“Holding internet platforms accountable for words or actions of their users is one thing, and the federal precedent uniformly dictates that section 230 does not allow it.”
“Holding internet platforms accountable for their own misdeeds is quite another thing. This is particularly the case for human trafficking,” the ruling added.
The ruling may set a precedent for other cases against social media companies typically protected by Section 230. https://t.co/DQXf1sN76G
— The Daily Dot (@dailydot) June 26, 2021
Moreover, the ruling also cited a recent amendment introduced by Congress on Section 230 that added the possibility of civil liability for platforms that violate state and federal human-trafficking laws.
A sex trafficking victim revealed in an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes show how a “recruiter” used Facebook to lure her away from her family when she was just 15 years old. She’s now suing the social media giant for failing to stop the said sex trafficking incident from happening in its platform.
Separately, the Human Trafficking Institute found that online recruitment for sex trafficking cases have surged over the years with the most online recruitment in active cases last year taking place on Facebook’s platform.
“The internet has become the dominant tool that traffickers use to recruit victims, and they often recruit them on a number of very common social networking websites,” Human Trafficking Institute CEO Victor Boutros earlier told CBS News.
“Facebook overwhelmingly is used by traffickers to recruit victims in active sex trafficking cases,” he added.
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