Omegle asks court to rule on U.S. trafficking lawsuit involving Brandon man without a trial

WARNING: This story contains disturbing details about child sex crimes and graphic sexual content.

Omegle, a social media website designed to randomly connect strangers, is trying again to put an end to a U.S. lawsuit against the company for a case involving a Manitoba man convicted of internet luring and child porn distribution. 

In 2021, an American woman only known as A.M. sued the website in Oregon for $22 million, alleging when she was 11 years old, it paired her up with a Brandon, Man., man in his late 30s who went on to sexually abuse her.

The civil lawsuit says over a three-year period the man forced A.M. to send naked photos and videos of her engaging in sex acts of his choosing, and sometimes made her perform for him and his friends. The woman also alleges her abuser forced her into trafficking other children for him on Omegle.

"The Omegle predator trained A.M. to go onto Omegle to recruit other children for him to exploit," the lawsuit alleges.

The Brandon man pleaded guilty in 2021 in Manitoba's Court of Queen's Bench to internet luring and distribution of child pornography. He was sentenced to 8.5 years, minus time served. CBC is not naming him to protect the identity of his victims.

The lawsuit alleges Omegle is responsible for what happened to A.M. because the website is a flawed product "designed perfectly" to "procure children anonymously and without a trace."

Omegle LLC is now seeking summary judgment or a partial summary judgment, which is when a judge decides the outcome of a case without it having to go to trial.

The company filed a motion for summary judgment in the case last month stating Michigan product liability law should apply because A.M. was a resident of the state.

The motion argues that under Michigan law, product liability claims have a three-year statute of limitations, and since A.M. failed to bring a timely suit against Omegle, plaintiff damages would be capped at $280,000, no punitive damages are available and the trafficking claim should be dismissed.

This isn't the first time Omegle has tried to put an end to the lawsuit. It previously filed a motion to quash the suit under a section of an American law that commonly shields big tech from these sorts of liabilities.

The law — Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — was created in 1996 to protect companies from being responsible for third-party content on platforms such as online message boards. The judge denied the request.

Omegle also argues in its court filings that A.M. exchanged written messages with the man through its website for 15 minutes then gave him her contact information so the man could directly contact her. That is how the man obtained photographs and videos of her. Omegle says "something [the man] otherwise could not have done because Omegle users are anonymous."

Last year, a CBC News reporter investigated the website. In a one-hour period on the website, she was matched with over two dozen people, most of whom were men, either naked or off camera. At least five of the men were visibly masturbating.