FBI investigating child pornography video being shared on Facebook

Stock image | Photo by YakobchukOlena, iStock / Getty Images Plus; St. George News

Law enforcement officials across the country are asking people to stop sharing a video on Facebook that depicts child pornography.

People in a number of states have contacted media outlets and police departments about the video. Many people are sharing the video in hopes of identifying the man shown abusing the child.

Investigators are asking people to stop sharing the video or screenshots of the video on social media — and this includes sharing it with police departments and media outlets on Facebook.

“If you saved it, if you posted it to your page, if you sent it to someone else… you’re disseminating child porn, and that’s a felony,” Tim Gann, an attorney in Alabama, told WHNT. “If you are in possession of (the video), no matter your good intentions, that is also a felony.”

FBI officials and federal prosecutors are investigating the case. There have been multiple reports of a suspect being arrested in connection with this case. Because of the nature of the investigation, investigators are not confirming any information about arrests.

“Every time it gets posted, the victim in this case gets re-victimized for more people to see what they have been subjected to,” Gann said. “There’s no need to repost this video. Law enforcement are doing their jobs. They are investigating. They are doing their best to identify the parties. There is no need for social media to be involved.”

What should you do if you see the video?

Read the full story here:  Fox13Now.com.

Written by Fox13Now.com

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Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright 2018, KSTU. A Tribune broadcasting station

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6 Comments

  • comments February 4, 2018 at 6:25 pm

    “Every time it gets posted, the victim in this case gets re-victimized for more people to see what they have been subjected to,”

    Hypothetically, if an 18 year old woman was brutally raped, and it was filmed by the rapist or his accomplice, and that video made it’s way onto the internet, under current laws, it would be perfectly legal to possess it. If these sort of things are actually ‘re-victimization’ then shouldn’t the laws be expanded to protect those over 18 as well?

    It also kinda sounds like facebook is about to become the world’s largest ‘kiddie porn’ distributor. All the good LDS’ers may have to relocate to another platform. Maybe the LDS church can create their own version of FB?

    Well, at least I didn’t have to read about any babies being tortured in this one…

    “baby torture porn”… smh… what’s the world coming to.

    • Redbud February 4, 2018 at 7:22 pm

      I don’t doubt that what you are describing would be traumatic for any person. There will always be a tendency to make laws more stringent for people under the age of 18. I am not saying this is the right or wrong thing to do, but it will almost always be the case whether we agree with it or not. Personally, I believe that all children should have stong laws protecting them from all manner of preventable harm. It’s up to our lawmakers to make parallel laws and penalties more or less stringent for adults. I do think the laws in all areas, children and adults, could be improved to provide more protection and be more fair. If anything, I’d like to see the laws and penalties become harsher for all crimes that violate one’s well-being, especially if they did nothing to provoke it.

  • comments February 4, 2018 at 9:59 pm

    I’ll say it again. I fully believe all this ‘child porn’ stuff should be kept illegal, but I still don’t understand how a person is being victimized by some other person looking at photos. To say that the act of looking at photos is victimizing someone is absurd, unless that person explicitly knew somehow that that particular person was viewing the photos, but then you would have to establish the intent of the person viewing it. Like it’s ok that the cops view it, but if someone is using it to get themselves off then it becomes criminal, but what about the media using the material for reporting, or a researcher doing some kind of science research. Then you’ve got to punish the intent and not just possession of the material. But punishing intent is punishing a thought crime, because no person is physically hurt by someone 1000s of miles away viewing photos of them– barring some unlikely elaborate scenario.

    All that said, maybe these people getting off on this “baby torture porn” stuff really had ought to be euthanized. It’s depraved and disgusting!

  • 12345 February 4, 2018 at 11:21 pm

    oh oh the lawyer hats are being worn again LOL !

  • Mike P February 5, 2018 at 10:03 am

    This is being shared on Facebook? I thought they screened everything before it could be posted. I’m also surprised no one reported it, cuz if you find something offensive on Facebook and you report it, they take it down immediately .

    • comments February 5, 2018 at 2:17 pm

      Maybe their moderators were taking a nap? It really does seem strange. I rarely use FB I have no idea the specifics of how it works.

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