A GRIEVING dad has vowed to never stop battling Mark Zuckerberg and the world's social media giants following his son's needlessly tragic death.
South Carolina Republican Senator Brandon Guffey has lived through the hell of his beloved Gavin taking his own life after being sextorted by sick internet blackmail gangs.
The 17-year-old died by suicide in July 2022 after receiving a slew of messages demanding money in exchange for not publicizing explicit photos he'd been tricked into sending.
A warped scammer pretending to be a young girl on Instagram had conned him.
He had already Venmoed some cash, but it wasn't enough.
Gavin pleaded for time. But messages became incessant, the pressure cranked up to tragically intolerable levels.
"They're taking your biggest shame and they're trying to capitalize on it," Brandon told The U.S. Sun during an emotionally charged interview at CrimeCon.
"I kicked in the door and literally felt him bleed out."
A few weeks later, with Brandon struggling to process his son's death, he received a laughing face emoji and taunt, "Did I tell you your son begged for his life?”
Gavin was one of an increasing number of teenagers who had become targets for sextortion gangs, which the FBI stress are on the rise and have led to an alarming increase in suicides nationwide.
Sitting alongside Brandon when interviewed by The U.S. Sun in Nashville were Tamia and Tim Woods. Their only son, James, died in a similarly shocking way to Gavin.
Brandon fears the most active groups are operating in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa, thus making it problematic for authorities in the United States to nail the perpetrators.
The ringleader of the notorious Yahoo Boys - a sextortion gang from Nigeria - was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February 2023.
Many similar groups, however, remain very active and Brandon lays the blame firmly at the feet of Facebook founder Zuckerberg and other social media giants.
He suing Instagram’s parent company, Meta, for wrongful death, gross negligence while claiming not enough is done to protect children from online predators.
There is also an accusation of algorithms being tailored to target vulnerable adolescents.
"These companies are big tech's equivalent of tobacco companies," he rages.
"They are aware of the problems they're causing, and yet they're hiding it."
The U.S. Sun understands progress in Brandon's case has been painfully slow, although moves to track down Gavin's tormentors are progressing encouragingly.
"We hope to know more soon," confirmed Brandon.
Brandon Guffey is a Republican lawmaker who has been a state representative for the 48th district in South Carolina since 2022.
Guffey, 44, began his political career as the York County councilman in 2020.
In the 2022 general election for South Carolina's House of Representatives, Guffey won 67% of the vote and became a state representative.
On July 27, 2022, Guffey's son, Gavin, died by suicide after becoming a victim of a sextortion scam.
His family discovered that Gavin had been victimized by an Instagram scammer posing as a young girl who convinced him to send compromising photos of himself.
Gavin was then blackmailed, with money being demanded and threats of releasing the nude pictures if he didn't pay up.
In 2023, Guffey pushed through a new legislation which made blackmailing people online a felony offence.
The sticking point about taking Meta on in the courts, revolves around Section 230, which protects websites hosting user-generated content.
Brandon says this legislation was introduced during the internet's infancy in the late '90s, and badly needs updating to encapsulate today's digital landscape.
It infers companies can't be held responsible for the actions of anyone over the age of 13 using their platforms.
"It's bulls**t," rapped Brandon. "They are minors."
He believes desperation to keep a customer base intact is of paramount importance to the likes of globally utilized platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Yet nothing will stop his bitter battle for justice.
"I'm going to hit them with every legal action I can," he said forcefully. "I'm going to have every state write every law a little bit different so they can fight us in every single court across the country.
"I'm going to continue to fight them personally, and I'm going to fight them publicly until they make the change."
Brandon succeeded in 2023 of introducing a new legislation - now known as Gavin's law - which makes sexual extortion an aggravated felony punishable with a prison sentence if the victim is a vulnerable adult, a minor, or if the victim is injured or dies as a result of the crime.
The bill was introduced to the House of Representatives on January 10, 2023, and currently resides in the House.
He believes sextortion cases have escalated in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, with more teenagers spending excessive time online, increasing their vulnerability.
Brandon wants his push to hold Meta accountable to "raise awareness" and ensure younger generations are fully aware of the implications of sharing too much detail to strangers on the internet.
"In my day, if you peed your pants at school and someone saw, it was their word against yours," he recalled.
"Nowadays, whenever you make a mistake, it's not only like dropping pamphlets out of the sky to your school, but every other school around too."
"They know how to solve these problems," concluded Brandon. "They just don't want to cut out their teenage customers.
"They need to repeal section 230. The world's largest, richest companies in the history of mankind are the only ones that are immune to getting sued. How f**ked up is that?"
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.
