Jason Szep

Investigations


OnlyFans Exposed

Profit, peril and abuse on a revolutionary porn site

Reuters •

Behind the OnlyFans porn boom: allegations of rape, abuse, betrayal

Adults-only website OnlyFans has made aspiring porn stars rich and celebrities richer. But a Reuters investigation found a darker side: More than 120 people have complained to U.S. police agencies that they were featured in the site’s sexually explicit content without their consent – including a woman who alleges a video of her rape was sold on OnlyFans. Laws often protect web giants while victims struggle for justice....
Reuters •

Enslaved on OnlyFans: Women describe lives of isolation and torture

In a note she hid in the front yard for police the day before they rescued her, the Wisconsin woman said she “was basically imprisoned in this room to keep making money” for her abuser.These trafficking enterprises relied on intimidation, violence or false assurances of love to press women into porn and keep them producing, say victims and prosecutors. The alleged perpetrators were mostly men – some accused of beating and raping women, others of tattooing their names and faces on their victims....
Reuters •

Multiple OnlyFans accounts featured suspected child sex abuse

This story contains disturbing descriptions of the possible online abuse of children.
An experienced child exploitation investigator told Reuters he reported 26 accounts on the popular adults-only website OnlyFans to authorities, saying they appeared to contain sexual content featuring underage teen girls.
“What is alarming is the scope and scale of it,” said Matt W.J. Richardson, head of intelligence at The Canadian Open Source Intelligence Centre. He noted that many accounts featured more than...
Reuters •

How OnlyFans turned into an empire bent on redefining porn

OnlyFans is on a mission to redefine porn.

With $1.3 billion in revenue and over 300 million users, the fast-growing company has fused sex work with the online creator economy so successfully that it has branched out into comedy, music and motor-racing.
But for all its ambition and influence, the inner workings of OnlyFans remain opaque.
It has just a few dozen employees even as its user base has almost quadrupled in recent years. Its billionaire owner is rarely seen in public or even mentioned...

Campaign of Fear

An examination of the terroristic threats facing America's election workers

U.S. •

Inside Trump’s campaign to demonize two Georgia election workers

As Donald Trump’s campaign sought to overturn his shocking loss of the state of Georgia in the 2020 presidential election, it hatched a conspiracy theory.

At its center were two masterminds: a clerical worker in a county election office, and her mom, who had taken a temporary job to help count ballots. The alleged plot: Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and mother Ruby Freeman cheated Trump by pulling fake ballots from suitcases hidden under tables at a ballot-counting center. In early December, the campaig

Discussing the threats

Jason talks with Rachel Maddow about Reuters' reporting on threats against election officials around the United States.

Dying Inside

The Hidden Crisis in America's Jails

Recognition for Dying Inside

Dying Inside was honored with several awards, including the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in the criminal justice category and the Brechner Freedom of Information Award for investigative reporting. The work was also part of an "American Injustice" package of Reuters stories exploring criminal justice issues in 2020 that was recognized with a Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists, an American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award, and a Deadline Cub award. 

Shock Tactics

Inside the Taser, the weapon that transformed policing

U.S. •

Ohio politicians call for inquiry into jail stun-gun abuses cited by Reuters

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - In one video, Sergeant Mychal Turner stunned a mentally ill inmate with a Taser multiple times after the inmate defied an order to stand in his cell at Ohio’s Franklin County jail. In another, Turner fired the Taser’s electrified barbs into an inmate’s chest after he refused to remove a piece of jewelry. In a third, he pulled the trigger five times on a handcuffed inmate who wouldn’t sit on a bench.

The team behind "Shock Tactics" -- which included Jason along with Peter Eisler, Tim Reid, Lisa Girion, Grant Smith, Linda So and Charles Levinson  --was honored with an Edgar A. Poe Memorial Award by the White House Correspondents Association, the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi award, a Deadline Club award, and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW) Best in Business award.

The War on the Rohingyas

Exposing the violent religious persecution of Muslims in Buddhist-led Myanmar

The stories by Jason and Andrew on the violent persecution of Myanmar's Muslims were honored with a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, an Osborn Elliott Prize by the Asia Society, and a Society of Publishers in Asia award for Editorial Excellence.