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rooting4redpillers ago

Yes, it's great to get people to believe and take interest in the subject, but how information is selectively dished out to the public is no small concern.

My impressions of Thorn, so far - Thorn seems like a great tool for gaining access and control of information. I'll be interested to see if they start getting more media attention from here on out. And if they start to position themselves as some big, new "voice," of a revitalized "movement" to stop the trafficking industry. Ashton Kutcher is the face and voice (and tears) of the project, probably not much more, and probably even sincere, to some great or small extent.

The Thorn website claims, We partner across the tech industry, government and NGOs and leverage technology to combat predatory behavior, rescue victims, and protect vulnerable children.

Anti-trafficking organizations across the country didn't have much interest in working with Thorn back in 2015. Out of 73 of these orgs, 59 refused to participate, and they got their stats from a grand total of 111 people from 14 orgs - see excerpt from their survey, below.

They have 20 technology company "Partners" listed on the site, but I can't find any anti-trafficking organization "Partners" listed.


From the Thorn website > Our Work > ...

Research: A large part of our work comes from informed research collected in the field, which helps our team, along with our many partners, remain on the cutting edge of technology.


... Expore the Research > Report on the Use of Technology to Recruit, Groom and Sell Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Victims > Download the Report

Research conducted by Thorn Digital Defenders of Children In collaboration with Dr. Vanessa Bouché, January 2015

Overview of Survey & Participants

Survey Procedure

Thorn made initial email contact with 73 anti-trafficking organizations across the country asking them if they would like to participate in the survivor survey. Of the 73 organizations contacted, 26 declined to participate, 28 did not respond to multiple follow-up emails, and five agreed to participate but still had not returned surveys as of the writing of this report. Thus, 14 organizations from across the country participated in the survivor survey, and this generated a total of 115 respondents.1 Thorn compensated the organizations/ participants for their time in the form of a check or gift card, depending on the organization’s stated preference.

1 There were four respondents that the researchers deemed were not human trafficking cases, and therefore dropped from the sample. The respondents were older than 18 years of age when they entered prostitution, they reported that they did not have a pimp, and there was no indication of any force, fraud and coercion in the interview transcript.


Thorn Board of Directors

ASHTON KUTCHER (Co-Founder)

DEMI MOORE (Co-Founder)

RAY CHAMBERS, United Nations Advocate and Special Envoy

JIM PITKOW, Chair of the Thorn Technology Task Force

PADMASREE WARRIOR, CEO, Chief Development Officer and Board of Directors of NextEV, U.S

SUZANNE BELL, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

JOE LONSDALE, Founding Partner at 8VC and Co-Founder of Palantir

ERNIE ALLEN, Child Protection Advisor


Thorn Staff

JULIE CORDUA, Chief Executive Officer

SARAH GARDNER, Director of Development

BROOKE ISTOOK, Director of Strategy & Operations

LEAH TREITMAN, Program Manager

SUGREEV CHAWLA, Lead Data Scientist

KRISTIN BOORSE, Senior Product Manager

RUBEN VAN DER DUSSEN, Senior Software Engineer

NIKISHA VASHEE, Development Associate

MIKE OTTUM, Software Engineer

CHASE RICKETTS, Software Engineer

DANIELLE MELFI, Policy & Development Manager


Thorn Pro Bono Partners

AGS - Altman Greenfield & Selvaggi LLP - Certified Public Accounts

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Professional Corporation - the premier legal advisor to technology, life sciences, and other growth enterprises worldwide.