The Texas Woman claims Facebook had a role to play in her being sex trafficked by a pimp when she was 15.
On Monday, October 1, 2018, an unnamed 22-year old Texas woman, referred as ‘Jane Doe’ in court papers, filed a suit against tech giants, Facebook at the Harris County District Court in Houston, Texas, with now-moribund classified ads platform, Backpage joined as co-defendants.
Backpage was shut down by the US Justice Department when it was discovered that they primarily sell sex on the platform.
According to Reuters, she claims she was raped, beaten and trafficked for sex by a pimp who pretended to be her friend as a 15-year old in July 2012.
The crux of her claims emanates from how Facebook didn’t shield her from being the victim of sex trafficking, by opening her up to the cruel possibilities.
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She also claims that Facebook should have publicized the potential presence of sex traffickers on the social platform at the time, alleging that Facebook knew children were being trafficked on their website.
In her defence, court documents state that the pimp was also friends with most of her real-life friends, so algorithms automatically matched her with the said pimp, whom she friended after he sent her a message.
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According to court documents on Reuters, she says that she became his victim after an argument with her mother. He offered her solace to console her, but instead, beat, raped and took pictures of her, which were posted on Backpage. Backpage attorneys refused to offer any comments.
Amongst her allegations, she claims Facebook was negligent in verifying the pimp’s profile, which was false.
Jane Doe’s attorneys, David Harris and Louie Cook of the law firm Sico Hoelscher Harris LLP in Houston didn’t respond to Reuters’ request for comments.
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