Twitter on Monday night announced it was disbanding its “Trust and Safety Council,” according to an email the company sent to the councils’ members that was obtained by CNN.
The company said in the email that it was “reevaluating how best to bring external insights into our product and policy development work. As part of this process, we have decided that the Trust and Safety Council is not the best structure to do this.”
The move comes as Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk is undoing many of the policies and practices put in place before he took over the social media company.
A page on Twitter’s website, which has now been removed, explained that the council was made up of external expert organizations that advised on issues including online safety, human and digital rights, suicide prevention, mental health, child sexual exploitation, and dehumanization.
“Together, they advocate for safety and advise us as we develop our products, programs, and rules,” Twitter previously explained.
Three members of the council resigned in protest last week, writing in a statement that “contrary to claims by Elon Musk, the safety and wellbeing of Twitter’s users are on the decline.”
A woman has come forward to launch a lawsuit against Hollywood legend Warren Beatty, accusing the actor of grooming her when she was only 14 years old, and coercing her into sex.
Kristina Charlotte Hirsch filed the lawsuit on monday in Los Angeles Superior Court under a 2019 California law that opened up a three-year “lookback window” for victims of child sexual abuse to sue their abusers regardless of the statute of limitations. The window expires on Dec. 31.
The lawsuit doesn’t cite Beatty by name, instead referring to him as Defendant Doe, but the abuser is described as having portrayed Clyde in Bonnie and Clyde, a role that earned Beatty a Best Actor nomination at the Academy Awards.
So far, there has been no public comment on the lawsuit by Beatty, 85, or his lawyer.
Hirsch, then 14, alleges that Beatty, then 35, met her on a movie set where he was filming, and paid “undue attention” to her.
The defendant “commented repeatedly on her looks, gave her his phone number, and instructed her to call him,” the lawsuit reads.
Hirsch was initially “thrilled by the attention” of a Hollywood actor and accepted Beatty’s invitation to visit his hotel room, according to the lawsuit — an invitation that Betty would extend again and again.
“Over the course of 1973, Defendant Doe called the Plaintiff on numerous occasions and summoned the teenager to the hotel where he was living to spend time with him,” the lawsuit reads.
The suit continues that Beatty would take Hirsch on car rides, offered to help her with homework, and on multiple occasions “spoke to Plaintiff about losing her virginity.”
As their relationship progressed, the lawsuit says that Beatty used his position “as an adult and a Hollywood movie star,” to coerce her into sexual acts with him. The sexual abuse occurred on numerous occasions until late 1973 and included oral sex, simulated sex and, “finally coerced sexual intercourse with the minor child,” the lawsuit claims.
Hirsch is suing Beatty on charges of sexual battery, sexual assault and harassment of a child and is seeking damages for emotional, physical and psychological distress.
The lawsuit states that Hirsch was a victim of “predatory grooming,” and “believed she was involved in a romantic relationship with a movie star.”
In the aftermath of the childhood sexual abuse, Hirsch finds it difficult to interact with people, especially those in positions of authority, as she struggles with “trust and control,” the lawsuit states.
Hirsch has requested a jury trial and is seeking compensation for attorney fees in addition to damages. She is being represented by Jeff Anderson & Associates, a firm that has handled child sex abuse cases against the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America.
Experts discuss impact of sexual abuse in children
An Australian man already sentenced to life in prison in the Philippines for human trafficking and rape has been given an extra 129-year sentence for sexually abusing children as young as 18 months, according to prosecutors.
Peter Gerard Scully, his Filipina girlfriend Lezyl Margallo, and two accomplices were charged with 60 offenses that included child abuse, trafficking, rape and syndicating child pornography, Merlynn Barola-Uy, a prosecutor in the southern city of Cagayan de Oro, told CNN on Wednesday.
Margallo was sentenced to 126 years in prison, while the two accomplices received prison terms of nine years each.
All four were sentenced on November 3 after entering a plea bargaining agreement, Barola-Uy said, describing the convictions as a “sweet victory.”
“The victim-survivors and their families together with the prosecution team have been, since day one, consistent in their resolve to fight Peter Scully and slay every (delaying) tactic he employed,” the prosecutor said.
“They all want to bring closure to this dark phase of their lives and move on,” Barola-Uy added.
The offenses date back to 2012 and are among dozens of charges filed against Scully after his arrest in 2015.
In 2018, the Australian and his former live-in partner Carme Ann Alvarez were sentenced to life in prison for human trafficking and rape in six cases involving seven children – one of whom was killed and buried in one of the couple’s rented houses in Surigao City, according to state-run Philippine News Agency (PNA).
The cases against Scully have thrown the spotlight on the Philippines’ enduring struggle against the online sexual exploitation of children.
In 2020, a report by the Washington-based International Justice Mission described the Philippines as a global dark spot for online sexual abuse, saying youths were vulnerable due to a combination of entrenched poverty, high internet connectivity and opaque international cash transfer systems.
Two years later, a study by UNICEF, Interpol and ECPAT International, a global network of organizations against children sexual exploitation, found around 20% of Filipino children who used the internet and were aged between 12 and 17 had experienced some form of online sexual abuse.
In August, members of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s cabinet told a news conference the country had declared “all-out war” on the sexual exploitation of children online.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla vowed at the conference to prosecute and jail people who sexually exploited minors online, but did not detail how the law and its enforcement might be strengthened.
