After bombshell reporting from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times revealed that Graham Platner was sending sexual text messages to over a dozen women, new reporting by Townhall and the Daily Wire reveals Platner’s profile on a “predator’s paradise” app known for child exploitation.
As reported by Townhall:
Democrat candidate for Maine U.S. Senate Graham Platner has had a long history of sexual deviancy unearthed over the course of his political campaign. It’s previously been revealed that Platner has engaged in bouts of masturbation in public restrooms, had phone sex on a network compromised by the Taliban, and cried over the closure of a Thailand prostitution tax-loophole.
A recent report from the Wall Street Journal revealed that Platner has an account on an anonymous messaging platform known for playing host to countless sexual predators, Kik.
Platner’s account, which goes by the username phustle0331, remains active today. His chosen avatar is a mirror selfie where an individual appears to be dressed in nothing but a bath towel. The tattoos featured on the individual match tattoos that Platner had as recently as October when he conducted an interview with a local ABC affiliate, confirming that he is the individual pictured. Further, the username matches that of private Instagram account associated with Platner as well as his infamous Reddit account.
As reported by the Daily Wire:
Platner’s Kik profile was created on June 26, 2016. The Democrat was almost 32-years-old when he joined the app, on which an estimated 70% of users are between the ages of 13 and 24. Though the app recently required users to be 18 or older to join, for most of its history it welcomed users 13 and older. Despite those guidelines, the app still does not require official age verification.
A Forbes investigation found that Kik had a “huge child exploitation problem,” while the BBC found that the app was at the center of over 1,100 child sexual abuse cases in the United Kingdom between 2013 and 2018.
But even among consenting adult users, Kik is no ordinary messenger. The platform has been described as “the app with the most severe sexual content.” Kik offers sexually explicit live chats with women, and is often found at the center of “sexploitation” cases, wherein predators coax someone to send nude photos, and then use the images for blackmail, the New York Times reported in 2016.
That report — released four months before Platner created his Kik account — chronicles a litany of heinous acts perpetrated by predators on the app, including a man who used the app to distribute child pornography, several who sent and solicited sexually explicit messages from minors, and one instance where a man attempted to kidnap a 14-year-old girl. Kik was also where 13-year-old Nicole Madison Lowell chatted with two Virginia Tech students who kidnapped and killed her.
In June 2025, a Maine man was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in jail for producing videos of children being raped and distributing the videos in a Kik chatroom that existed solely for that purpose.
Previously reported by The Wall Street Journal:
Platner also has an active account on Kik, a popular, private messaging app. Platner’s profile shows a mirror selfie of him shirtless with a towel wrapped around his waist. Many of his tattoos are clearly visible in the picture.
The Wall Street Journal verified the account on the app, a messaging platform that has been widely used for sexual encounters.
The account is listed with the user ID phustle0331, which is similar to other social-media handles that Platner has used, including Reddit and a now-deleted Instagram account. It was created in 2016.
Platner’s campaign said the candidate had long deleted the app from his phone but hadn’t deactivated his account.
Previously reported by The New York Times:
Mr. Platner’s wife, Amy Gertner, told a senior campaign aide that he had been exchanging sexual messages with multiple other women.
It was the kind of revelation with the potential to damage the political newcomer just as his campaign to unseat Senator Susan Collins, a Republican, was beginning to resonate with voters, especially in a state where female voters make up a large share of the electorate…
Ms. Gertner told her that her husband had been exchanging sexual messages with as many as a dozen women.
A current Platner campaign official said Mr. Platner had been communicating with up to six women.
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