A woman alleges child abuse rings found her on Discord and Instagram as a teen, then blackmailed her into sending them nude and self-harm photos that they shared across the internet—leaving her with mental and physical scars.
Now she’s suing both tech companies in a case her lawyers hope will be a “watershed moment” for holding social media sites accountable, as the FBI warns parents about a rising network of online extortion groups targeting kids.
The anonymous plaintiff made the allegations in a previously unreported lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court in April.
The suit names three groups — CVLT, 764, and Greggy’s Cult — that the FBI says groom children online and blackmail them.
Multiple members of each group have been arrested by law enforcement.
Discord and Meta have faced scrutiny over their impact on children’s mental health and safety.
The case could also test whether these social media companies could be liable for criminal activity on their apps and whether Section 230 — the federal law shielding social media companies from user behavior — applies to such cases.
Discord and Meta declined to comment on this specific case.
A Discord spokesperson said that disrupting the 764 network is one of its top priorities and that it has been cracking down on the group since 2021, when it first became aware of it.
Discord says it works closely with law enforcement, has removed thousands of servers, and has banned hundreds of thousands of users associated with 764 and its affiliates.
The bulk of the plaintiff’s claims are against Discord, “due to the stronger causal link between Discord’s conduct and her injuries,” her lawyers wrote in a filing.
She also sued Meta because, she alleges, a CVLT member first contacted and groomed her on Instagram, which Meta owns.
The anonymous plaintiff’s case is ongoing.
In legal filings, Meta moved to have the case bundled with social media addiction cases.
Discord wants the case dismissed entirely, arguing that federal law shields it from liability for content posted by its users.
A Meta spokesperson said CVLT is banned from its platforms and that it has strict policies to prevent child exploitation, suicide, and self-harm.
Meta also says it has specialized teams — including former law enforcement and prosecutors — working with the FBI on the issue, plus a 24/7 incident response team for imminent cases.
According to her complaint, the plaintiff’s ordeal began at age 15, when a member of Greggy’s Cult contacted her through a public Discord server.
The New Mexico man, Zachary Dosch, allegedly persuaded her to send a video of herself masturbating and livestreamed it to other group members.
Dosch pleaded guilty to federal charges of distributing child-sexual-abuse material in 2023.
He, along with four other Greggy’s Cult members, was charged again in 2025, on allegations of extorting children, and he pleaded not guilty.
A lawyer for Dosch didn’t respond to a request for comment.
At 17, after the plaintiff began posting on Instagram about her mental health struggles, another man contacted her on Instagram, the suit alleges.
The lawsuit says he turned out to be Collin John Thomas Walker, a member of CVLT, a child exploitation group described as “Neo-Nazi” by the FBI.
The lawsuit claims Walker spent months “love bombing” her before finding out her home address and threatening her.
Walker allegedly coerced the plaintiff into obtaining her sexually explicit photos, which he then sent around CVLT’s Discord server.
He also allegedly coerced her to carve his username into her body, burn herself with candle wax, and starve herself to stay attractive — all while his account remained active on Instagram.
Walker was later arrested and pleaded guilty to child exploitation charges in October 2025; a lawyer for Walker didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The plaintiff’s parents confiscated her phone and returned it when she turned 18 — at which point another online child abuse group called 764 recruited her on Discord, the suit said.
She finally escaped by faking her own death, and by the end of May 2022, she “escaped the online hell she had been living in,” the lawsuit states.
US law enforcement has arrested and charged multiple 764 members.
The FBI said in a warning letter to parents in February that it’s investigating more than 350 people tied to 764 and its affiliates.
The lawsuit alleges Discord and Meta’s “permissive environments provided these predators with unfettered access, anonymity, and the ability to disseminate images and messages that deepened Plaintiff’s trauma,” resulting in a “cycle of fear, shame, and emotional despair.” The plaintiff suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, permanent scars, and poor grades, her complaint says.
Julie Erickson, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiff, told Business Insider she hopes the lawsuit will pave the way for tech companies to be held accountable for child exploitation rings operating on their platforms. “We are hopeful that this is sort of a watershed moment,” she said.
The suit follows other legal action against Discord over child predators allegedly operating on its platform.
The states of Texas, Arkansas, New Jersey, and Nevada have each separately sued Discord since last year for allegedly failing to protect children online.
Earlier this year, the parents of 13-year-old Jay Taylor — a Washington teen who died by suicide in 2022 after a 764 member allegedly pushed him toward it in a group chat — filed a wrongful death suit against Discord, alleging the company “abetted one of the most depraved and dangerous child abuse cults in modern history.” Discord seeks to move the case to private arbitration, citing its terms of service.
A Discord spokesperson said the company doesn’t comment on legal matters.
Meta was previously found liable in a child exploitation case, a ruling it strongly disputes.
In March, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $375 million for, in part, exposing children to sexual predators.
New Mexico’s attorney general says Meta plans to appeal.
Contact Charles via email at crollet@businessinsider.com or on Signal and WhatsApp at 628-282-2811.
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