Editor’s Note: Article contains discussions of graphic and obscene content unsuitable for some audiences. The Twitter account being reported on contains publicly visible images that may be illegal.
Headline USA confirmed that the content in question remained uncensored prior to publication of this article but is not linking directly to the content.
(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In June, Idaho man Ronald Emerson was sentenced to at least four years imprisonment after he repeatedly posted sexual content involving children on Twitter.
Emerson is in prison now, but his content is still online—including videos of him apparently raping his stepdaughter.
Headline USA emailed Twitter about the still-active account, @RonnieE420, on Monday morning. A Twitter spokesman responded: “We’ll get back to you soon.”
But by the close of business hours on Monday, the account and the apparent child pornography were still online.
The pedophile’s still-active account highlights new Twitter owner Elon Musk’s failure in curtailing sexual abuse content on his platform, despite deeming it “priority #1” in a tweet last November.
The New York Times published an investigation on the matter in February, showing that some child pornography on Twitter still gets over 100,000 views.
Twitter’s child porn problem extends long before Musk’s tenure, and child abuse content is perhaps even more rampant on other platforms. In June, for instance, the Wall Street Journal published an investigation exposing a vast pedophile network operating on Instagram.
“Though out of sight for most on the platform, the sexualized accounts on Instagram are brazen about their interest. The researchers found that Instagram enabled people to search explicit hashtags such as #pedowhore and #preteensex and connected them to accounts that used the terms to advertise child-sex material for sale,” the report said.
“Such accounts often claim to be run by the children themselves and use overtly sexual handles incorporating words such as ‘little slut for you.’”
Meanwhile, after Musk briefly promoted free-speech principles when he first acquired the company last year, censorship has seemingly returned to the platform since the hiring of World Economic Forum crony Linda Yaccarino as new Twitter CEO.
The renewed censorship crackdown extended to Headline USA. When this reporter posted a photo in June of the charred corpse of tax protestor Gordon Kahl—who the FBI killed and conflagrated 40 years ago—Twitter had it removed.
Headline USA appealed the decision, explaining that the picture was posted for journalistic reasons—it’s the same photo used in this story—but Twitter maintained its decision.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
