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How Facebook Messenger and Meta Pay are used to buy child sexual abuse material | Technology


Court documents and interviews detail the products’ role in alleged exploitation – and how some payments go undetected

The alleged buyer, Brandon Warren, was indicted by a grand jury in February 2022 and charged with nine counts of distribution of material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. In December, the New Mexico attorney general’s office filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging Facebook and Instagram are “breeding grounds” for predators targeting children for human trafficking, grooming and solicitation. Gretchen Peters, who is the executive director of the Center on Illicit Networks and Transnational Organized Crime (CINTOC), has documented the sale of narcotics, including fentanyl, over Meta’s platforms.

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