A safety group is calling out Meta subsidiary and global communication platform WhatsApp for not taking steps to stop users from sharing images depicting child abuse. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), an organization that finds and removes child abuse images from the internet, alleges that Meta isn’t doing enough to protect children and called on the tech giant to intensify efforts to stop the sharing of such images on WhatsApp.
According to the safety group, Meta could use content-moderation mechanisms to prevent the proliferation of child abuse images on the communication app. WhatsApp is the most popular mobile communication platform on the globe and has billions of users across dozens of countries. A spokesperson from WhatsApp noted that users can directly report other users who push “heinous material,” so the company can ban them and report the offending users to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Alluding to a recent incident involving explicit images and a former BBC news presenter, IWF chief technology officer Dan Sexton says Meta has chosen not to prevent “indecent imagery” from spreading on WhatsApp. He asked how Meta would prevent child abuse images from being shared on WhatsApp in the future and wondered if there are any mechanisms stopping people from sharing such images on WhatsApp today.
He explained that there are no mechanisms to stop the proliferation of child abuse images on videos on WhatsApp even though Meta, the police and even the general public know such images are shared on the platform. However, a WhatsApp spokesperson argued that the app had better safety measures than other applications in the communications segment, such as end-to-end encryption.
The spokesperson said end-to-end encryption helps to keep people of all ages safe and noted that WhatsApp has come up with “robust” safety features that allow it to spot, prevent and deal with abuse without compromising users’ privacy. On the other hand, National Crime Agency acting director of intelligence Rick Jones argued that even though the technology to identify and combat child abuse images already exists, companies such as Meta are intentionally designing messaging platforms that don’t allow the effective use of this technology.
In some cases, Jones said, messaging platforms are designed in such a way that they can’t use this safety technology at all. Additionally, he said end-to-end encryption only hides illegal behavior in messaging platforms and doesn’t protect customers in any way. Similarly, United Kingdom safeguarding minister Jess Phillips called on social media platforms to incorporate “robust detection measures” into their systems to ensure they aren’t safe spaces for criminals.
More countries are likely to grow increasingly concerned about the different forms of crime that are perpetuated on social media and video-sharing platforms. Entities that have a stake in these segments, such as Momo Inc. (NASDAQ: MOMO), need to come up with innovations that will detect and weed out any criminals.
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