Foreign News
Child sex abuse victim begs Elon Musk to remove links to her images
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, and this led us to a bank account linked to a person in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Zora was first abused by a family member. A collection of images of her abuse have become infamous among paedophiles who collect and trade such content. Many other victims face the same situation, as images of abuse continue to circulate today.
Zora is angered the trade continues to this day.
“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 were originally only available on the so-called dark web, but she now has to live with the reality that links are being openly promoted on X.
Social media platforms are trying to rid their platforms of illegal material, but the scale of the problem is enormous.
Last year the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), received more than 20 million mandatory reports from tech companies about incidents of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) – illegal images and videos on their platforms.
NCMEC attempts to identify victims and perpetrators, the organisation then contacts law enforcement.
We approached “hacktivist” group Anonymous, whose members are trying to combat the trade in child abuse images on X. One of them told us the situation was as bad as ever.
They tipped us off about a single account on X. It used a photo of the head and shoulders of a real child as its avatar. There was nothing obscene about it.
But the words and emojis in the account’s bio made it clear the owner was selling child sexual abuse material and there was a link to an account on the messaging app Telegram.
The trader appeared to be based in Indonesia and was offering “VIP packages”, collections of images and video files of abuse for sale to paedophiles around the world.
The Anonymous activist had been working to report this trader’s multiple accounts on X, so they could be removed by the platform’s moderation systems. But each time one account was removed, he told us, another new one would replace it.
The trader appeared to have been overseeing more than 100 almost-identical accounts. The activist told us that when he had contacted the trader directly using Telegram, the trader had replied saying he had thousands of videos and images for sale.
“I have baby. Kids young 7-12”, he wrote in messages to the activist seen by the BBC. He also explained that some of the content showed child rape.
We got in touch with the trader ourselves.
He provided links to samples of material, which we did not open or view. Instead, we contacted experts from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (CCCP) in Winnipeg – who work alongside law enforcement and are legally permitted to view such content.
“The Telegram account was, for lack of a better term, a taster pack – essentially a collage of the material he had available of all the different victims,” explained Lloyd Richardson, the CCCP’s director of technology. “When we looked at all the different images in the collages, I would say there were thousands.”
Among the files were images of Zora.
Her abuser in the US was prosecuted and imprisoned many years ago, but not before footage of the abuse had already been shared and sold across the world.
Zora told us: “I have tried over the years to overcome my past and not let it determine my future, but perpetrators and stalkers still find a way to view this filth.”
As she grew older, stalkers uncovered Zora’s identity, contacting and threatening her online. She says she feels “bullied over a crime that robbed me of my childhood”.
Finding the trader
To identify the trader selling photos of Zora, we posed as a buyer.
The trader sent us his bank information and an online payment account, both had the same name listed as the account holder.
The Anonymous activist had discovered this name was also linked to two money transfers and another bank account.
We tracked down a man with the same name as that listed on the accounts, to an address on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
A producer working in the city for the BBC World Service went to visit the address and confronted a man on the premises who, when presented with the evidence, said he was shocked.
“I don’t know anything about this,” he said.
The man confirmed one of the bank accounts was his and stated it was created for a single mortgage-related transaction. He said he had not used the account since and that he would contact his bank to find out what had happened. He denied knowledge of the other bank account or the money transfers.
We cannot know for certain if, and to what extent, he may be involved and as a result we are not naming him.
The way Zora’s images were being marketed is a method used by hundreds of traders across the world, our investigation found.
Posts on X use different hashtags familiar to paedophiles. Images that appear on the platform are often taken from known child abuse images but can be cropped so they are not obscene.
Elon Musk said removing child sexual abuse material was his “top priority” when he took over X, then known as Twitter, in 2022.
Social media platforms in general, not just X, could do much more to prevent criminals posting repeatedly in this way, says Lloyd Richardson from the CCCP.
“It’s great that we can send a takedown notice [to social media platforms], and they remove the account, but that’s the bare minimum.”
The problem is that users can come back onto the platforms in a few days with a new account, he says.
X told us it has “zero tolerance” for child sexual exploitation. “We continually invest in advanced detection to enable us to take swift action against content and accounts that violate our rules,” said a spokesperson.
The platform told us it works “closely with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and supports law enforcement efforts to prosecute these heinous crimes”.
Telegram said: “All channels are moderated, and more than 565,000 groups and channels related to the spread of CSAM have been banned so far in 2025.”
The platform said it has more than a thousand moderators working on the issue.
“Telegram proactively monitors public content across the platform and removes objectionable material before it can reach users or be reported,” a spokesperson said.
When we told Zora her photos were being traded using X, she had this message for the platform’s owner, Elon Musk: “Our abuse is being shared, traded, and sold on the app you own. 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.”
[BBC]
North Korea has cancelled the Pyongyang marathon for unspecified reasons, a tour agency linked to the event has said.
British-owned Koryo Tours, which describes itself as the official partner of the marathon, said on Monday that it had received notice of the cancellation from North Korea’s athletics association.
A message it attributed to the association said the marathon was being cancelled “due to some reasons”.
The annual event was established in 1981 to celebrate the birth of North Korea’s founding leader Kim Il Sung. The 2026 race was set to take place on 5 April.
The message, purportedly from the North Korea athletics association’s general secretary, thanked “all the Elite Marathoners and Amateur Runners of the world who are interested in Pyongyang International Marathon”.
The message gave no further explanation on what the reasons for the cancellation were.
Koryo Tours said it understood the decision was final and had been taken “at a level above the organisers of the event itself”.
It said it would be seeking clarification on the circumstances surrounding the decision.
The tour company added that neither organisers nor event partners were involved in making the decision, and said it recognised “this announcement will be disappointing to many runners who had already registered or were planning to participate”.
Koryo Tours, based in Beijing, China, offers several marathon packages to foreigners, departing from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang.
Packages start from €2,190 ($2,529; £1,894) for 2.5 nights in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, including a marathon place and “highlights” of the capital and tickets were sold out this year, according to the agency’s website.
It said all deposits paid will be returned and runners have the option to retain their deposit for a future event or North Korea tour.
A date for the 2027 marathon has not yet been set.
The event had only returned last year after it was suspended for five consecutive years due to the Covid pandemic.
It is open to both amateur and some professional athletes and offers several race distances – 5km (3.1 miles), 10km (6.2 miles), half marathon (21.1km; 13.1 miles) or full marathon (42.2km; 26.2 miles).
[BBC]
Twenty-three people have been rescued by helicopter crews in Ontario, Canada, after the ice shelf they were standing on broke, sending the group floating into Lake Huron.
Ontario Provincial Police said on social media that the rescue began around noon (16:00 GMT) on Sunday after “winds and current moved the ice shelf away from shore” approximately 2km (1.2 miles).
The rescue involved two helicopters making multiple trips to pluck people off the shelf as it continued to fracture into more pieces in the Owen Sound, about 200km north-west of Toronto.
One member of the group said that he only realised the ice he was fishing on had detached from shore when he noticed that his GPS showed him moving.
Members of the rescued group described harrowing moments, with several of them becoming partially submerged in the cold waters as they sought out the thickest ice on the floe, or sheet.
“I looked at my GPS. We were moving,” fisherman Kevin Fox wrote, identifying himself on Facebook as one of those who were caught up in the incident. “I turned around and saw waves forming behind us.”
He said that he and several others started running towards a route that they hoped still connected to shore.
“We decided to run toward one side of the bay, but when we got there the ice had already separated from shore. We turned and ran the other way, but the ice there was breaking apart too,” he wrote.
Some started phoning their families, said Fox, adding: “It’s something I will never forget – seeing grown men crying while saying goodbye to the people they love.”
Fellow fisherman Alfie How told The Owen Sound Sun Times that they eventually “just sat down as a group and said this could be the end”.
Fox told the paper that the rescue occurred during high wind, and the group was concerned that the helicopters would not be able to fly.
“It was being eroded,” Fox said. “It kept getting smaller, and smaller.”
Police say several members of the group suffered hypothermia, but that everyone was expected to make a full recovery.
“Great teamwork and a quick response by all involved,” police added.
Last month in the US state of Vermont, police rescued a group of ice skaters who had also become trapped on floating ice.
Using kayaks and ferry boats, rescuers brought the group back from the icy Lake Champlain.
Officials warn that ice fishing conditions can change rapidly during the relatively warm daylight hours.
[BBC]
At least 23 people have been killed in Nairobi after heavy rain overnight caused severe flooding in Kenya’s capital city.
Police said about 30 people had been rescued but many others drowned after being swept into rivers – some have been electrocuted.
Kenya’s military has been deployed to help people trapped inside their cars as police described widespread damage to properties as well as road closures.
Several flights bound for Nairobi Airport had to be cancelled or diverted to the coastal city of Mombasa.
“The torrential rains have led to significant flooding, unfortunately resulting in 23 fatalities so far, the destruction of property, road closures, and the displacement of residents,” police said in a statement on Saturday afternoon.
[BBC]
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