Alleging that she was raped, beaten and sex trafficked at an age of 15 by a 'Facebook' friend, a US woman has filed a suit against the social networking site.
The Texas woman who identifies herself as Jane Doe in court papers said that the tech-giant was aware that minors were being trafficked via their platform, reports Reuters.
She filed a lawsuit in Houston's Harris County District Court on Monday. Jane has also accused the now-shuttered classified advertisement website Backpage.com and its founders of involvement in the whole incident.
Facebook refused to comment when approached by media, so did Backpage.com.
The lawsuit claims that the woman had added the man on Facebook who appeared to know many of her real-life friends. The man initiated conversations with her through the social networking site.
The lawsuit alleges that after fighting with her mother, the accuser was invited and consoled by her FB friend. He later beat, raped and filmed her. The pictures were posted on Backpage.com
Jane claims that Facebook did not take enough measures to verify the user's false identity. The website also failed to warn her of online sex-traffickers.
The plaintiff's attorneys, David Harris and Louie Cook of the law firm Sico Hoelscher Harris LLP in Houston, did not comment on the whole issue.
Backpage.com was shut down by US authorities earlier this year after a Justice Department investigation finding that the website was used primarily to sell sex.
(With inputs from Reuters)