14 DAY TRIAL // Now that there’s proof both Google and Microsoft have been fighting against child abuse by scanning their systems for such footage and reporting it to the authorities, you should also know that Facebook also does this.
According to Business Insider, the social network confirmed that Facebook is actively looking for explicit photos of children both on the social network and on Instagram. The company is also using the same tool that Microsoft invented and that both the Windows-maker and Google use.
“There is no place for child exploitative content on Facebook. We use PhotoDNA to check that each image which is uploaded to our site is not a known child abuse image. If a match is found then we prevent the image being uploaded to Facebook, disable the account, and flag it to NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) for investigation,” the company’s spokesperson said.
Basically, they do exactly the same thing that Google and Microsoft do in an effort to make sure such content never reaches the platform.
Facebook, like its colleagues, is under no legal obligation to look for the material, but it has taken a proactive role in flagging, removing and reporting those who break the law. On the other hand, possessing such footage is illegal and so the online service providers don’t even keep copies of the database themselves.
The technology only allows them to detect flagged hashes that are like fingerprints of these photographs that have already been detected as portraying child abuse.
This also means that Facebook doesn’t necessarily look at your photos unless they also get flagged. If you share naked pictures of your baby, you’ll theoretically be ok and not get reported to the police.
Facebook’s Terms of Service doesn’t exactly inform you that it scans photos for this purpose, but it does mention that you shouldn’t post content that can be considered hate speech, threatening, pornographic in nature, incites to violence, contains nudity, as well as graphic and gratuitous violence.
While the privacy concern is still there, these companies have stepped out and explained just how the scanning takes place and that it only involves looking for the hashes that were flagged by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Facebook, just like Google and Microsoft, is trying to weed out this type of sick content and make sure that those in possession of it get sent to jail.