United States of America: Issued ruling in civil lawsuit against Reddit over alleged child sex trafficking facilitation

On 24 October 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a ruling regarding allegations by individuals against the company Reddit of aiding and abetting trafficking in sexually explicit content depicting minors. The appellate ruling states that plaintiffs, in order to to obtain damages for sex trafficking, must prove that the conduct of the website itself - and not its users - violated 18 U.S.C. § 1591 (Sex trafficking of children or by force, fraud, or coercion). While the plaintiff would normally enjoy the immunity conferred by section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act explicitly states that immunity does not apply if the conduct also violates the criminal child sex trafficking statute. However, having failed to prove that Reddit's own conduct, rather than that of its users, violated this statute, the appeal was dismissed.