A federal appeals court on Friday partially revived a lawsuit accusing X (formerly Twitter) of failing to act promptly against child exploitation content, marking a rare exception to the broad legal immunity typically granted to social media platforms. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that X must face a negligence claim for not quickly reporting an explicit video of two underage boys to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) after learning of its existence.
The case, which predates Elon Musk’s 2022 acquisition of Twitter, centers on two minors who were allegedly coerced via Snapchat into sharing explicit images, which were later compiled into a video and posted on Twitter. Court documents reveal the platform took nine days to remove the content and report it to authorities—after it had been viewed more than 167,000 times. While the court dismissed other claims, including that X knowingly benefited from sex trafficking, it allowed the case to proceed on grounds that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act does not shield platforms from liability once they have actual knowledge of illegal content.
The ruling also permits a claim that X’s reporting system was too cumbersome, hindering efforts to flag child exploitation material. Lawyers for the plaintiffs, represented by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, hailed the decision as a step toward “justice and accountability.” X has not yet commented on the ruling, which could set a precedent for how platforms handle illegal content under U.S. law. The case now heads back to lower court for further proceedings.