Consider what survivors are facing at this very moment. The Epstein Files Transparency Act, passed in late 2025, led to the release of more than 3m pages of documents. The stated goal was transparency and accountability, which survivors deserve. But the justice department’s botched redactions have exposed victim after victim, leaving their names, their stories and the worst moments of their lives searchable on a government website. Attorneys representing more than 200 survivors called it “the single most egregious violation of victim privacy in one day in United States history”.

These women now face a digital reality in which their exploitation may define them for the rest of their lives. Every job application, every new relationship, every Google search of their name carries the possibility of exposure. Erasing digital traces is technically complex and financially prohibitive for most people.

People like Bill Gates have the resources to help.

Gates has $100bn and one of the most sophisticated technology networks on Earth. He could fund digital privacy restoration for survivors whose identities were exposed. He could help pay for the specialized legal work required to scrub records from the internet.

He could do all of this tomorrow.

And it shouldn’t be Gates alone. Every person of means who spent time in Epstein’s world has a moral debt. Not a legal one, but a human one. The kind that an apology doesn’t discharge.