TAG / TONY ORTEGA
RESULTS
VIOLATIONS
Silence as Policy: How the Columbia Journalism Review Protects Its Own and Abandons the Public
When conflicts of interest in major news coverage were exposed, CJR refused to respond, eroding public trust in media oversight.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Teen Survivor Sues Backpage, Hotels After Being Sold for Sex for Seven Months by Her Own Mother
The federal lawsuit targets Backpage and hotels that ignored warning signs—even as Tony Ortega defended the site, masking the serial sexual exploitation of girls like Isabelle Hughes.
HUMAN RIGHTS
NCMEC Opens Backpage Survivor Network to Help Victims Access $200 Million Compensation Fund
With Backpage and its imitators shut down, DOJ is offering restitution using recovered funds—but paperwork and deadlines pose hurdles for survivors.
HUMAN RIGHTS
UK Targets Backpage-Like Adult Services Sites as Sex Trafficking Surges
UK authorities are probing “pimping websites”—online platforms that increasingly fuel sex trafficking and leave victims harder to reach and regulators scrambling to catch up.
HUMAN RIGHTS
DOJ Launches Largest Trafficking Victim Payout in US History—Questions Remain Over Tony Ortega’s Role
While Backpage’s owners are serving prison sentences, former Village Voice editor Tony Ortega—who defended the site and mocked victims—hasn’t faced charges, prompting calls for broader accountability.
HATE
Alex Barnes-Ross Is No Apostate: The Story of an Obsessed Stalker’s Collapse
Expelled from the Church of Scientology after stalking a young woman, Barnes-Ross has spent the last dozen years working to convert his discharge into a livestreamed vendetta for cash.
VIOLATIONS
San Francisco Standard Shamelessly Abandons Ethics to Serve Bigotry and Clicks
How a reporter’s reliance on a discredited hate blogger cast a shadow over a story—and a website—masquerading as journalism.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Reuters OnlyFans Investigation Uncovers Porn, Rape and Slavery
OnlyFans claims they prohibit illegal content and moderate what gets posted on their site. The evidence tells a different story.
HUMAN RIGHTS
New $215 Million Victims Fund Will Help Survivors Sex Trafficked on Backpage
The owners were jailed and the website assets confiscated, but the role of Tony Ortega—Backpage’s notorious sex trafficking champion—remains to be fully explored.
HUMAN RIGHTS
We Needed a Vote to Abolish Slavery. On the Resolution’s 75th Anniversary, It’s Skyrocketed Instead.
The United Nations passed an anti-slavery resolution on December 2 in 1949. Since then, humans owned by others have skyrocketed to 50 million worldwide. What will it take to stop this scourge?
