In brief
Zora, who was first abused over 20 years ago, expresses outrage at the continued circulation of her abuse images on the social media platform X, appealing to Elon Musk for action. Her case reveals a broader issue of child sexual abuse material being traded online, as investigations uncover links to traders profiting off such content.
A victim of child sexual abuse has begged Elon Musk to stop links offering images of her abuse being posted on his social media platform X.
Hearing that my abuse - and the abuse of so many others - is still being circulated and commodified here is infuriating, says Zora (not her real name) who lives in the United States and was first abused more than 20 years ago.
Every time someone sells or shares child abuse material, they directly fuel the original, horrific abuse.
X says it has zero tolerance for child sexual abuse material and tackling those who exploit children remains a top priority.
The BBC found images of Zora while investigating the global trade of child sex abuse material, estimated to be worth billions of dollars by Childlight, the Global Child Safety Institute.
The material was among a cache of thousands of similar photos and videos being offered for sale on an X account. We got in contact with the trader through the messaging app Telegram, leading us to a bank account linked to a person in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Zora, who was first abused by a family member, found her images have become infamous among paedophiles. She is angered that this trade continues today.
My body is not a commodity. It never has been, and it never will be, she says. Those who distribute this material are not passive bystanders, they are complicit perpetrators.
Images of Zora's abuse, originally confined to the dark web, are now openly promoted on X.
Social media platforms have been trying to rid their networks of illegal content, but the scale of the issue is staggering.
In the previous year, the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received over 20 million mandatory reports from tech firms regarding incidents of child sexual abuse material on their platforms.
The investigation revealed that traders use various tactics to evade detection, posing a significant challenge to moderators.
When Zora learned that links to her images were being shared on X, she urged Musk to take action, stating, If you would act without hesitation to protect your own children, I beg you to do the same for the rest of us. The time to act is now.
