A Texas woman, claiming that she was raped, beaten
and sex trafficked at the age of 15 by a pimp who posed as a Facebook
"friend", has filed suit against the social network, alleging its
executives knew minors were being lured into the sex trade on their platform.
Facebook did not respond to a request by Reuters
for comment
Attorneys for Backpage.com and the former
employees named in the lawsuit as defendants also did not return calls for
comment.
According to the lawsuit, the woman was
"friended" on Facebook in 2012 by a user who appeared to know several
of her real-life friends. The man messaged her through Facebook, according to
the lawsuit, which was seen by Reuters.
The lawsuit alleges that at one point, following
an argument with her mother, the man offered to console her, but after picking
her up from her home, he beat and raped her and took pictures that were posted
on Backpage.com.
The lawsuit says Facebook did not do enough to
verify the user's identity, which the lawsuit said was false, and that Jane Doe
was never warned that sex traffickers were operating on the social media
network.
The plaintiff's attorneys, Mr David Harris and Mr
Louie Cook of the law firm Sico Hoelscher Harris LLP in Houston, did not reply
to requests for comment.
Backpage.com was shut down by the authorities
earlier this year after a Justice Department investigation into allegations
that the website was used primarily to sell sex.
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