Survivor confronts Elon Musk as child sexual abuse images resurface on X

Survivor confronts Elon Musk as child sexual abuse images resurface on X



Elon Musk wears a shirt that says 'Tech Support' as he speaks during a cabinet meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2025. — AFP pic

Tuesday, 26 Aug 2025 12:33 PM MYT


LONDON, Aug 26 — A survivor of child sexual abuse has pleaded with Elon Musk to stop links to images of her abuse from being posted on his social media platform X.

The woman, known as “Zora”, was first abused more than 20 years ago and says hearing her images are still being traded online is devastating, BBC reported.


She told the British news outlet that every time such material is shared or sold, it fuels the original abuse and prolongs the suffering of victims.

X says it has “zero tolerance” for child sexual abuse material and insists tackling exploitation remains a top priority.


The BBC discovered images of Zora while investigating the global trade in child abuse material, which Childlight, the Global Child Safety Institute, estimates is worth billions of dollars.


Thousands of photos and videos were being offered for sale on an X account linked to a trader using Telegram and a bank account in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Zora was abused by a family member, and images of the crime became widely circulated among paedophiles despite her abuser being jailed years ago.


She says she feels anger that the abuse continues to haunt her, insisting her body has never been a commodity and condemning those who distribute the images as complicit perpetrators.

Her images, once confined to the dark web, are now openly promoted on X using coded language and links.

Social media platforms face enormous challenges in removing such material, with the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) receiving more than 20 million reports last year alone.

The hacktivist group Anonymous has been tracking accounts on X that sell child abuse material and say the problem remains as severe as ever.

The BBC found one trader who had operated more than 100 accounts on X and claimed to have thousands of videos and images of children, some showing rape.

Experts at the Canadian Centre for Child Protection reviewed sample files and confirmed that they included images of Zora among thousands of others.

The trader’s bank details were traced to a man in Jakarta who denied involvement when confronted, though one account was confirmed to be in his name.

Zora urged Elon Musk to act immediately, saying that if he would protect his own children without hesitation, he should do the same for victims whose abuse continues to be traded on his platform.