Dick Durbin calls on DOJ to review Twitter's handling of child exploitation

The Justice Department's failure to address the issue was called by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to review Twitter's handling of child exploitation material. Durbin, D-Ill., wrote that Twitter has provided little confidence that it is adequately policing its platform to prevent the online sexual exploitation of children. Children are at serious risk because of this. The letter cites a report from NBC News that found dozens of Twitter accounts and hundreds of tweets using numerous hashtags to promote the sale of child sexual abuse material CSAM. Some of the tweets were brazen in how they marketed the material, using common terms and abbreviations for CSAM. After the article was published, Twitter said it was blocking access to several hashtags associated with the posts.

Durbin asked Garland to review public reports about child exploitation on Twitter and consider if an investigation was warranted.

I urge you to consider whether an online platform can be held liable under federal criminal law for failing to take reasonable steps to prevent the proliferation of CSAM on its platform, and whether or not it needs additional legislative authority to address such criminally negligent behavior, and, if not, to inform the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In December, Durbin wrote to Twitter CEO Elon Musk, expressing concerns about child safety on the platform after layoffs and the dissolution of its Trust and Safety Council.

Neither Musk nor Twitter responded publicly to that letter.

Musk said he was prioritizing the removal of child exploitation material from the platform, and criticized Twitter's previous leadership for not doing enough on the issue.

Some child advocates, in addition to Durbin, have raised concerns that Musk's actions at the company could make addressing CSAM on the platform more difficult.

Around 20 people worked in Twitter's Trust Safety organization as of January, according to NBC News. That is less than half of the group's previous workforce.

The company has denied doing enough to promote child safety, despite the fact that it isn't doing enough to promote child safety.

Ella Irwin, Twitter's vice president of product overseeing trust and safety, told NBC News this month that the company has more than 25% more staffing on this issue problem space than the company had at its peak last January and that it is improving rapidly and detecting more than Twitter has detected in a long time, but we are deploying a number of things to continue to improve.