Zuckerberg ensures child porn will continue
as a booming business
infuriates shareholders: 'We can't fire him'
Facebook has currently become the world’s number one hub of reported CSAM, but the founder's stress on privacy is coming at the cost of allowing such content to proliferate
By Pritha Paul, Meaw
Zuckerberg's 'callous' response to child sex abuse material on FB infuriates shareholders:
'We can't fire him' (Getty Images)
Mark Zuckerberg is more concerned about enhancing the privacy of Facebook and other social media users than help curb the growth of child sex abuse material (CSAM) on the networking platform. This has infuriating other shareholders of the company, but the shareholding pattern of the company has rendered them helpless.
Michael Passoff, founder and CEO of Proxy Impact, a shareholder advocacy service, told MEA WorldWorld that although Facebook has currently become the world’s number one hub of reported CSAM, with the social media giant accounting for 94% of such reported content in 2019 (15.8 million cases) alone, Zuckerberg, who controls around 60 percent of voting shares in the company founded by him, has put little thought or effort to bring down the alarming statistics.
In a recent shareholders meeting, a proposal that urged the company to "assess the risk of increased child sexual exploitation from the company's plans for end-to-end encryption" was shot down, Passoff said. And this was mainly due to the fact that Zuckerberg was the "Chairman and CEO so there is no independent board oversight of his performance."
"Facebook has duel stock classes and Zuckerberg's Class B stock is worth 10 votes per share while everyone else's shares are one share one vote. This gives him control of 57% of the shares which means that he can never lose a shareholder vote. The result is that neither the board or shareholders can override his decisions or fire him," Passoff said.
He added: "For example, our shareholder proposal got 12.6% of the vote. I have been filing shareholder resolutions for 25 years and 12% is usually enough to prompt most companies to take some action on the shareholder's area of concern. But in this case our 12.6% is actually equal to 43% of votes not controlled by Zuckerberg and it is very rare for a company to ignore 43% of shareholders... yet the company has failed to even speak with the resolution co-filers despite our requests for dialogue."
In this photo illustration a girl browses the social networking site Facebook
on July 10, 2007 in London, England. (Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg remains fixed on the idea of complete privacy being the future of social media, despite the legitimate concern that Facebook’s rush for end-to-end encryption in Messenger and Instagram "seems to ignore the overwhelming threat to children’s privacy and safety" and the fact that it "will provide child predators cover that will exponentially expand their outreach and the number of victims."
Despite being aware of the risks to child safety inherent in his bid to increase privacy on Facebook and other related social media platforms, Zuckerberg's response to address the same has been "callous" at best. “Encryption is a powerful tool for privacy, but that includes the privacy of people doing bad things. When billions of people use a service to connect, some of them are going to misuse it for truly terrible things like child exploitation, terrorism, and extortion," the tech mogul wrote in a March 2019 blog.
While answering an employee's concern regarding the same issue last year in October, he acknowledged that "losing access to the content of messages would mean 'you’re fighting that battle with at least a hand tied behind your back'" when it comes to child abuse. The lackluster interest in fighting child predators who are using his platform to prey on children has "only fueled the criticism of Zuckerberg further and led many to believe that nothing will change as long as he has complete control."
Passoff said that the increase in reported CSAM on Facebook as well as the other platforms under the company was directly proportionate to the growth of the popularity of the applications. "Facebook’s other platforms include WhatsApp with 2 billion users, Facebook Messenger with 1.3 billion users, and Instagram topping 1 billion users. These four social media platforms alone account for nearly half of the world’s monthly social media use... Facebook comprises the bulk of reported images because it scans more actively for them than any other company," he said.
But even then, the social media platform has largely been inefficient in countering the growing problem. "Facebook has not seemed able to keep pace with the sheer volume of content on its various platforms to be scrutinized. Facebook searches rely on artificial intelligence that generally detects previously identified images but has trouble detecting new images, videos and live streaming. Human confirmation is typically needed and most of Facebook’s reports go to non-profit groups such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that are overwhelmed with the avalanche of material they are sent," Passoff said.
And with the world landing in the midst of a global pandemic, the issue has only been aggravated. With most of the company's content moderation workforce — most of which is outsourced — told not to continue during the stay-at-home orders around the world, CSAM went undetected on the platform.
Added to that was the fact of schools in over 180 countries sending children home to continue their education on Internet-connected devices which has led to kids "flocking to social media to connect with friends and strangers during social isolation. As parents struggle with juggling work or lack thereof and risks and stress from the pandemic, it left many children unsupervised online. Many of those children use WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to connect, likely increasing the chances that Facebook’s many platforms are facilitating the connections between child pedophiles and unsuspecting children."
As a result, Passoff stressed that it is more important than ever for Zuckerberg to take accountability and focus on making social media safe for children. "Governments, law enforcement agencies and child protection organizations have harshly criticized Facebook’s planned encryption claiming that it will cloak the actions of child predators and make children more vulnerable to sexual abuse. Pending legislation in Congress could make Facebook legally liable for CSAM. The company is facing increasing regulatory, reputational and legal risk due to this issue," he said.
Highly encrypted platforms must be made illegal but for government use. All other use should result in the closure of the platform and imprisonment for the people responsible. Furthermore, every child sexual abuse image should result in a fine for the platform on which it is found. Such fines should begin small and double with every occurrence.
One man should not be permitted to ensure the growth of an industry that destroys children. If he goes through with the plan to increase encryption, he should be charged as an accessory to child sexual abuse.
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No-one seems to be doing anything about it
BBC
Rescued: A young child recovered from an online abuse gang in the Philippines, during lockdown
Police forces across the world are warning that criminals and paedophiles are using the coronavirus lockdown to target children.
Data gathered by the BBC reveals demand for abuse imagery has shot up.
Reports of obscene online material more than doubled globally to more than four million between March and April.
The US-based Center for Missing and Exploited Children said some of that rise related to one especially horrific and widely-circulated video.
In the UK, where 300,000 people are considered a threat to children, there were nearly nine million attempts in the last month to access child sexual abuse websites which had been previously blocked by the Internet Watch Foundation.
The anti-child abuse charity which reports sites to internet service providers, says that since the lockdown began there has been an 89% drop in site deletions by the tech companies.
It believes this may be because many of these firms have fewer people staffing their hotlines during the pandemic.
Why? It's not like they can't do it from home; it's a tech company!
Spanish National Police say reports of online child sex videos leapt by just over 20% since just before the lockdown there began on 13 March.
Their counterparts in Denmark revealed the number of attempts to access child abuse websites has trebled.
With most schools closed, children are spending more time online. Experts say that puts them at greater risk of grooming for sexual abuse.
Cathal Delaney of Europol told the BBC: "Children are more vulnerable, they're isolated, they're not being as well supervised online and they're spending more time online during this period than they would have previously.
Dark web surge
"Those conditions lend themselves to children being approached in different ways or coerced or exploited."
Online abuse viewers who feed violence have been caught in Australia
Demand for abuse imagery has also shot up in Australia, where police say the downloading leapt by 86% in the three weeks after the 21 March lockdown.
Commander Paula Hudson of the Australian Federal Police, said many offenders see the pandemic as an ideal opportunity to target children. "Across the dark web we've actually identified Covid-19-themed child exploitation forums," said Cdr Hudson.
"One particular one we're monitoring has grown by more than 1,000 members. They're actively discussing the Covid opportunity to find more victims."
Many of those arrested in the Philippines are related to the victims
"The internet traffic is so heavy that we've been finding that dark web systems are crashing."
Real world abuse
Many child abuse videos commissioned to order by paedophiles are made in the Philippines, where children are trafficked by abuse rings.
The children who are held captive by the gangs are subjected to appalling violence on camera. These attacks are live-streamed to paying customers in western nations, including the UK.
Officials in the Philippines say reports of online abuse material have soared - from approximately 59,000 in February to more than 101,000 in March, the month that the country's coronavirus lockdown began.
The International Justice Mission (IJM), a global organisation that works in the Philippines, says half of the children rescued from abuse gangs are 12 years old or younger - and it has come across two victims who were babies less than three-months-old.
Earlier this month, police in the country intercepted one gang and took three children into care, the youngest of whom was just six. Detectives suspect they may have been forced to take part in live-streamed abuse videos.
A 34-year-old woman arrested in the operation was the mother of two of the allegedly abused children. This is consistent with IJM research that found two-thirds of abuses are either parents or close relatives of the victims.
Child abusers already face life terms in the Philippines - and some legislators are proposing changing the law to introduce the death penalty.
Advice for parents, carers and children
The National Crime Agency in the UK has created the 'ThinkuKnow' website
It has advice for parents and others working with children on how best to protect them online.
The website includes advice written for children themselves
It's received more than 250,000 hits since the pandemic began
The BBC, also has Own It, a guide to staying safe online
But Emmeline Villar, under-secretary at the country's Department of Justice, warned adults are being lured into the online child sex abuse industry because work is hard to find in the pandemic-hit economy.
"It's a grave concern to us," she said. "Especially as we know that these factors that are present right now, because of the lockdown, are contributing to the situation which would allow both the demand and supply to increase."
The hope is that as the lockdown eases in countries across the world and schools reopen, the risks to children will drop.
But for those who have fallen victim to abusers the road to recovery can be long and painful.
Ruby from the Philippines endured two months of non-stop sexual abuse, live-streamed to western men, before she was finally rescued by police.
"It's like being trapped in a dark room without any rays of light at all," she said. "There's no point of living at all. They made my life so miserable for years. How much more will I suffer from the damage they did to me?"
Intoxication Is A Possible Defence In Sex Assault Cases Again: Ontario Court
A decades-old law had previously banned intoxication
as a defence for violent crimes
Colin Perkel Canadian PressTORONTO — A court ruling allowing people accused of sexual assault or other violent crimes to argue they were so intoxicated they didn’t know what they were doing has angered women’s-rights activists but civil libertarians call the criticism unwarranted.
A decades-old law had banned such a defence but Ontario’s top court this week declared it unconstitutional for trampling on key rights of the accused.
The Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, which intervened in the case, called the decision a setback for victims, particularly of sexual assault.
“We are dismayed that women’s rights to equality and dignity are not given more adequate treatment,” the organization said on Thursday. “It also risks sending a dangerous message that men can avoid accountability for their acts of violence against women and children through intoxication.”
Osgoode Hall is seen in Toronto on Sept. 25, 2019. The building is home to Ontario's Court of Appeal. THE CANADIAN PRESS
Cara Zwibel, a director with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said the decision clarified the legal situation around use of the intoxication defence. While she sympathized with concerns the ruling would undermine protections for sexual assault victims, she said they were overblown.
“I don’t see it as seriously undermining the rights of victims,” Zwibel said. “This is a rarely used provision; it’s not this widespread, systemic concern.”
At issue was a law the federal government enacted in 1995 amid a backlash over a court ruling that recognized drunkenness could be raised to defend against a sexual assault charge.
The Appeal Court decision setting aside the law came in a pair of separate cases in which two men, both high on drugs, either killed or injured close relatives. Their defence, however, ran afoul of the ban on arguing extreme intoxication.
In overturning their convictions on Wednesday, Justices David Paciocco, David Watt and Peter Lauwers said a person must act voluntarily to commit a crime. While lawmakers might have sought to help victims attain justice, they said the law violated an accused’s rights by holding them accountable for violence they really had no control over.
“It enables the conviction of individuals for acts they do not will,” the court said. “To convict an attacker of offences for which they do not bear the moral fault required by the charter to avoid this outcome is to replace one injustice for another and at an intolerable cost to the core principles that animate criminal liability.”
So, apparently, a man is not responsible for getting himself too drunk, or stoned, to be moral. The right to get blasted out of your mind trumps a woman or child's right to justice for having been violated to the point that their lives are virtually destroyed. This is not justice!
Child sexual abuse on the rise in Zimbabwe
despite harsh sentences
Some very disturbing statistics from Zimbabwe
Thandeka Moyo-Ndlovu, Health Reporter
ABOUT 69 percent of child sexual abuse cases occur in the home and are perpetrated by people who are supposed to protect the minors and are close to them.
According to a 2019 Violence Against Children Survey, despite calls for deterrent sentences, the scourge is on the rise in Zimbabwe.
These cases could worsen given that many countries including Zimbabwe have imposed lockdowns to fight the spread of Covid-19 which has seen children spending more time at home.
Some homes, instead of being safe sanctuaries for children have actually become a theatre of nightmares. Abused children usually become reclusive and with abusers nearby all the time, may struggle to let anyone know their horrible life experiences.
In some cases, family members cover up abuse and children run out of options to get assistance.
Abuse, experts say, may become a vicious cycle in which victims may grow up to be perpetrators as well.
Children, due to lockdown conditions are spending lengthy periods away from school which usually keeps them away sexual predators.
Sexual violence is defined as a range of sexual acts against a child including incest, rape, sexual violence in the context of dating intimate relationships, sexual exploitation, online sexual abuse and non-contact sexual abuse.
At least one in three girls and two in five boys are survivors
Childline estimates that at least one in three girls and two in five boys are survivors of sexual abuse in Zimbabwe just like in other African countries.
In a statement yesterday, the Zimbabwe Association of Church-Related Hospitals said cases of sexual abuse of children and gender-based violence are likely to increase with every advent of a crisis.
“About 69 percent of sexual abuse occurs in the home according to the Violence Against Children Survey, 2019. What this means for many survivors however is that they are trapped at home with the abusive partners and family members with little chances of reporting,” read the report.
“The fear is that they are trapped in the Covid-19 lockdown unable to leave, escape, or reach out for help and in essence, homes are no longer safe havens. Young people are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation. All possible steps must be taken to protect children against sexual predators.”
Proposed 60 year minimum sentence for child rape
“Sadly, survivors always call for help and that is where the story ends. According to the VCS 2019 report, 61 percent tell someone about sexual abuse but only 14 percent of survivors access services,” read the statement.
“It is everyone’s responsibility to break the silence and protect the word’s future generations. There is need to break the silence of institutions.”
The organisation said sexual abuse exposes children to HIV, unwanted pregnancies and increase the likelihood that they will experience other sexual assaults in the future or become abusers themselves.
“Prevailing toxic social norms and gender inequalities, economic and social stress caused by the Covid -19 pandemic coupled with restricted movement and social isolation measures, have led to an exponential increase in sexual violence,” said ZACH.
“Cases of child sexual abuse are rarely reported because the majority of perpetrators are related to the abuse children,” read the statement.
Statistics from the National Aids Council show that the majority of sexual abuse cases in Bulawayo involve children, some aged below five years.
The latest quarterly report on Bulawayo states that 59 percent of the total abuse cases reported in the city were from girls aged between 10 and 14 years.
“The province recorded more sexual violence cases in the young people in the 10-14 and the 15-19 age groups who make up 59 percent of the total abuse cases. Of particular concern is the number of under-fives who are sexually abused who make up 14.8 percent of the total number of abuse cases reported,” the report said.-@thamamoe
Frontline police unaware of information identifying at-risk children in Northern Ireland
Concerning gaps in operational practices could have serious consequences for young people’s safety, the criminal justice inspector said.
Jacqui Durkin (Aaron McCracken/PA)
Frontline police were unaware of information identifying children at high risk of sexual exploitation because it was not recorded on their system, a watchdog report said.
Concerning gaps in operational practices could have serious consequences for young people’s safety, the criminal justice inspector in Northern Ireland said.
The inspection also identified inconsistencies in the approach of the PSNI’s five public protection units due to lack of resources and the level of supervision applied.
Jacqui Durkin, chief inspector of criminal justice, said: “This inspection found there were many police officers, prosecutors and other professionals working within the criminal justice system who were dedicated and tireless in their efforts to help children at risk of child sexual exploitation.
“Yet despite this positive work, we found examples where information and intelligence linked to children identified as being at high risk of sexual exploitation had not been recorded on the police system, leaving frontline police officers unaware of the wider risks that existed.”
The report published on Tuesday by Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJI) highlighted a lack of clear leadership and strategic direction around tackling child sexual exploitation.
Actions to safeguard children and disrupt suspects were not always apparent from the sample of case files reviewed as part of the inspection fieldwork.
Ms Durkin said: “These issues were raised with the police at the time of the inspection fieldwork and I acknowledge and welcome the work already under way within the PSNI to address these gaps in operational practice and the inspection recommendations.”
She said frontline officers needed to be supported to develop greater “professional curiosity” so they looked beyond a child’s immediate behaviour, like going missing or suspected offending, to find out what was really going on, and identified children at risk of or experiencing sexual exploitation.
“Prosecutors also need to be better supported to show how issues such as exploitation and grooming are taken into account as part of their decision-making when dealing with children who are suspected of committing offences.”
Ms Durkin warned the exploitation was happening in towns, cities and the rural community.
“It is an uncomfortable truth and a reality that we must deal with.
“It is child abuse and it can involve children who live with their parents just as much as those who are in care, or have been in care before.”
She said this inspection found that, despite great efforts since the publication of the Marshall Report on child sexual exploitation in Northern Ireland in 2014, the region still does not have a clear picture of the scale and nature of the problem.
African Governments Failing Survivors of
Child Sexual Exploitation
Inter Press ServiceBy Tsitsi Matekaire
London — In Malawi, Mary* was only 14 years old when she was recruited and trafficked to the city of Blantyre and sold for sex in a bar. A man had arrived in her village looking for girls to work as domestic helpers for families.
He appeared genuine and for Mary - and many girls who are out of school and living in poverty - this seemed a way out and a chance to earn money to support her family. She was living with her grandmother, who had hardly enough to buy food.
When Mary arrived in Blantyre, the promised work never materialized. Instead, the man sold her to a bar owner who in turn sold her for sex to his customers. Isolated and traumatized, Mary was trapped for over three months, and only escaped when the bar owner went away one night.
Although it has now been over two years since his arrest, the case is still pending in court. With no fixed time limit, the legal process has dragged on, leaving Mary waiting indefinitely and stuck in limbo. Meanwhile, the man who recruited her from the village has never been arrested.
Mary would have abandoned her fight for justice long ago had it not been for the support of Equality Now and our partner People Serving Girls at Risk, who have been providing psycho-social assistance to help Mary rebuild her life and navigate the difficult legal process.
This includes covering her transport costs and accompanying her to numerous court hearings that to date have resulted in only postponements, disappointment, and upset.
Worryingly, the many legal obstacles faced by Mary are neither uncommon in sex trafficking cases, nor are they unique to Malawi. Across Africa, traffickers who recruit, abuse, and sexually exploit vulnerable and impoverished women and children are going unpunished because governments and criminal justice systems are failing in their duty to hold perpetrators to account.
Take for instance, the horrific case of German national Bernhard Glaser, who was arrested in Uganda in February 2019 and charged with multiple counts of sex trafficking and abusing girls aged 10 to 16 who were living at an unlicensed shelter Glaser had established ostensibly to "help" vulnerable children.
The story made international headlines and caused huge public uproar amongst Ugandans who were appalled at how this predator had betrayed the community's trust and abused his position of power to sexually exploit many girls over a long period of time.
Despite widespread public outrage, more than a year after Glaser's arrest, the case was still pending, delayed by multiple adjournments, with Glaser yet to even enter his plea. He died from cancer in April 2020, a day after being granted bail.
There is much more on this story at AllAfrica.
True scale of NI child sexual exploitation
is unknown, says report
By Gillian HallidayChild sexual exploitation is happening across Northern Ireland's towns, cities and rural communities - but the true scale of the problem has yet to become clear, a major new report has warned.
Published today by Criminal Justice Inspection (CJI) NI, the report has also identified what it has described as "concerning gaps" in how police handle cases which involve child exploitation.
The PSNI said it welcomes the findings and recommendations, stressing it had implemented measures to improve how it tackles the issue.
Jacqui Durkin, Chief Inspector of CJI NI, said child victims of sexual abuse are an "uncomfortable truth and a reality that we must deal with".
"Child sexual exploitation is happening here in our towns, cities and rural communities," she said. "It is child abuse and it can involve children who live with their parents just as much as those who are in care, or have been in care before."
She said that despite "great efforts" made since the 2014 publication of the Marshall Report - an independent inquiry involving various public bodies and authorities looking at child sexual exploitation - more needs to be done to protect children.
"We still do not have a clear picture of the scale and nature of child sexual exploitation occurring in our community," she said.
Ms Durkin said that one of the recommendations in the report is that "problem profiles" should be established by the PSNI, carried out in conjunction with the Department of Justice (DoJ), and include information from health, social services, education and other partners.
"A problem profile will improve understanding of the risks to children from those people who seek to sexually exploit them, and enhance knowledge about what is required to effectively disrupt perpetrators and protect children," she stated.
Ms Durkin also called for a cross-departmental strategic framework to be established within the next six months to support a collaborative response to child sexual abuse and exploitation here.
"Child sexual exploitation is an important issue and given the devastating impact it can have on victims, it requires a strategic joined-up response."
The Chief Inspector said change also needed to be implemented to address gaps in operational police practice identified by the report.
"This inspection found there were many police officers, prosecutors and other professionals working within the criminal justice system who were dedicated and tireless in their efforts to help children at risk of child sexual exploitation," she explained.
"Yet despite this positive work, we found examples where information and intelligence linked to children identified as being at high risk of sexual exploitation had not been recorded on the police system, leaving frontline police officers unaware of the wider risks that existed."
Inspectors also identified inconsistencies in the PSNI approach when dealing with child sexual exploitation as a result of a lack of resources, she added.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan said recommendations resulting from the inspection are already being implemented with some fully completed and others in progress.
"The safeguarding and wellbeing of our children and young people in Northern Ireland is a key priority for the PSNI," he said.
"We are committed to delivering a service which meets the needs of victims, supporting them through an often stressful and traumatic experience, and can often continue beyond the criminal justice process," ACC McEwan added.
Europol reports 106 percent increase in child sexual exploitation
The EU’s police agency says there has been a “surge” in online distribution of child sexual abuse material during the Coronavirus pandemic.
By Martin BanksA Europol report says that during the COVID-19 lockdown, when children’s lives promptly shifted from the real world into an online virtual one, “sex offenders have found in this development a tempting opportunity to access a broader group of potential victims.”
The report, entitled “Exploiting isolation: sexual predators increasingly targeting children during COVID pandemic,” says that a child is “re-victimised every time an image is shared” and that explicit material represents a “significant” threat to children’s safety.
Europol’s Executive Director Catherine De Bolle said, “The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a surge in online distribution of child sexual abuse material, which was already at high levels prior to the pandemic.”
“The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in a surge in online distribution of child sexual abuse material, which was already at high levels prior to the pandemic” Catherine De Bolle, Europol Executive Director
She added, “The harm resulting from being a victim of this crime is severe, and every time a picture or video is shared, this results in repeat victimisation. The impact of this crime area can hardly be overstated and an effective response is of utmost importance.”
The report, says Europol, shines a light on the increased sharing of child sexual exploitation images online and the “serious threat” this poses to children’s safety. To confront the threat Europol says that law enforcement authorities have increased efforts to tackle “this severe crime.”
“With both children and sexual offenders confined at home, law enforcement authorities have seen in the past few months the amount of child sexual exploitation material shared online increasing globally,” says the report.
Sex offenders have increased their criminal activities in social media, via peer-to-peer networks and on the “dark web.”
Attempts to access websites featuring child sexual abuse material, calls to helplines and activities in dark net and the sharing of child abuse material have all increased during the confinement period.
In some countries, sexual abuse offences, such as online solicitation and what is called “sextortion” have also been reported.
The report goes on, “Webcam videos have considerably increased in offenders’ forums. This includes videos depicting forced or coerced children, videos produced by children for peers or for social media attention or others which were captured without their knowledge.”
“Video ‘competitions’ organised in child sexual exploitation web forums may have also influenced the increase of exchanged images.”
“With both children and sexual offenders confined at home, law enforcement authorities have seen in the past few months the amount of child sexual exploitation material shared online increasing globally” Europol report
“The monitoring of these forums shows that abusers were quick to realise the enhanced vulnerability of children being more online.”
On such forums, offenders exchange not only abuse material, but also share “best practices” on how to trick and coerce more victims. While the exchange of child abuse material is usually not motivated by financial gain, offenders pay for some forms of it, such as live distant child abuse.
Child abuse material content can also be “disguised” behind advertisements bringing criminals profits with a “pay per click” formula.
The report went on, “The economic slow-down related to the pandemic may stimulate an increase of child abuse material produced within vulnerable communities for economic gain.”
With more offenders online, the exchange of abuse material may continue to increase, the agency warns.
A Europol spokesman says it is monitoring the threat and “providing continuous support to Member States to identify offenders and victims.”
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U.S. senator to change anti-child porn bill over
Google, Facebook encryption concerns
Nandita Bose, (Reuters) - U.S. legislation aimed at stopping online child sexual abuse material is likely to be amended to address concerns of platforms like Google and Facebook that the proposed law goes too far to weaken privacy protections for ordinary users, according to a draft of the bill seen by Reuters.
FILE PHOTO: Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., makes an opening statement in Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., June 16, 2020. Tom Williams/Pool via REUTERS
In a new draft authored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, The Eliminating Abuse and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies Act of 2019, or EARN IT Act, makes compliance with a set of controversial “best practices” voluntary instead of mandatory for companies such as for Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google.
When is there going to be an act named: The Eliminating Abuse and Rampant Neglect of Children in Interactive Technologies Act?
These “best practices” were issued by a commission including Attorney General Bill Barr, who opposes end-to-end encryption. Tech companies had previously feared the practices would attempt to help law enforcement investigations by including weaker privacy protections for messages sent by users. Federal law enforcement agencies have complained about such encryption.
In the previous version of the bill, failure to comply with these requirements would strip tech companies of their immunity against lawsuits for content posted by users.
The committee will take up the bill at a hearing on Thursday. A Senate Judiciary aide confirmed the proposed amendments will be presented by Graham, whose office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The proposed changes allow federal and state claims against internet companies if they host child sexual abuse material, but it would not allow the Attorney General or his office to make demands of the companies.
The amendment is also likely to remove a provision that would have left the companies vulnerable to significantly more lawsuits.
The proposed changes address some of the biggest concerns raised by the tech industry over the past several months but did not completely assuage their fears.
“The bill still threatens encryption and privacy by letting states pass laws that ban encryption,” trade group Netchoice, which counts Facebook, Google, Twitter among its members said in a statement.
And I hope every single state does pass such a law. Otherwise, this bill does a lot for tech companies and nothing for sexually abused children. In fact is may make things much worse.
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