X (formerly known as Twitter), TikTok, and Telegram - these three dominant social media platforms have a combined total of more than 100 million users globally. But they are also being exploited by perpetrators as a platform to produce, distribute, and trade child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Perpetrators post sexually suggestive video content on X or TikTok, luring users to Telegram to purchase CSAM. They also use AI chatbots to generate nudes using photos of real-life people, which take merely five minutes to make.
Since there are practically no technical barriers, users now need not venture into the dark web. They can simply click through links that pop up on their social media accounts that will take them to a virtual playground of sexual offenders. They also now have the ability to create customised sexual exploitation content.
In other words, X and TikTok serve as the entrance for a shopping mall by marketing and driving traffic to Telegram, which acts as the mall where the actual CSAM transactions take place, according to an investigation by Malaysiakini between October 2025 and June 2026.
