Salesforce is being sued by 50 women who claim the San Francisco-based cloud software company helped sex traffickers exploit them. The women, who say they are survivors of sex trafficking organized on the now-defunct Backpage.com web portal, charge that Salesforce profited off each ad.
Court papers state that billionaire Marc Benioff’s company “knowingly supported Backpage by providing customized database tools to market and remarket prostitutes to ‘pimps, johns and traffickers who had been underusing its trafficking services,’” Bloomberg reported.
“Salesforce knew the scourge of sex trafficking because it sought publicity for trying to stop it,” said the complaint. “But at the same time, this publicly traded company was, in actuality, among the vilest of rogue companies, concerned only with their bottom line.”
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The women, each identified only as Jane Doe in the complaint, said they were sold for sex across the U.S. They said they were raped and abused.
“Starting in 2013, when Backpage’s growth stalled, Salesforce took on the web portal as a client and provided tools to help manage its “trafficker and pimp database,” resulting in Backpage’s resurgence, according to the complaint. The lawsuit includes an order form billed to Backpage that’s dated in December 2016,” Bloomberg reported.
Ironically, Salesforce is helping to sponsor an anti-human-trafficking event in April.
Salesforce has yet to comment on the lawsuit, which was filed in San Francisco. But a company spokesperson said in a statement: “We are deeply committed to the ethical and humane use of our products.”
