Twitter on Saturday blocked searches for a series of hashtags and keywords used to promote the sale of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), following an NBC News investigation posted the day before.
NBC News discovered that a series of hashtags on its platform related to file-sharing service Mega acted as a rallying point for users seeking to trade or sell CSAM. NBC News watched the hashtag for weeks and counted dozens of users who collectively published hundreds of tweets a day.
The account used thinly veiled keywords and terms related to CSAM to promote content that was stored on Mega and claimed to be available for purchase or trade.
twitter Prohibition of any promotion Since CEO Elon Musk took over the company, he has vocally criticized the company’s previous leadership, claiming that it did not adequately address child sexual exploitation material on its platform. Last November, he said wiping down the platform and tackling child exploitation was a “top priority.”
NBC News looked into the hashtag and found that some accounts had been using it for months, with dozens of users using the hashtag to tag Musk in an attempt to warn of the problem. I understand. However, the hashtag seemed largely unmoderated until Saturday.
Following NBC News’ report on Friday, Ella Irwin, Twitter’s vice president of product reliability and safety, including oversight of child safety on the platform, said in an email: He said: As you probably know, the link you shared relates to a file-sharing service that is widely used for a variety of purposes, so it’s difficult to find specific illegal content posted using the hashtag in question. is much more difficult.”
In a follow-up email on Saturday, Irwin said he met with the team over the weekend and decided to ban the hashtag.
“Given that we have banned other hashtags commonly used for human trafficking, we are already considering doing so in the coming weeks. [CSAM] We already have the materials, but due to these conditions we have decided to accelerate this action,” she said.
Over the past six weeks, Irwin said, Twitter has analyzed thousands of hashtags for a project it plans to complete in the coming weeks. She said the company doesn’t want to ban hashtags that are used legally, but in this case, the company decided to act.
“If a malicious person manages to evade detection using these specific terms, it will bias the platform in the direction of making it much more difficult to do so, despite current detection mechanisms.” Irwin writes.
In reviewing hashtags and tweets last week, NBC News confirmed that searches related to file-sharing site Mega were blocked. Other hashtags related to various encrypted platforms and other keywords related to CSAM remained valid.
In an email Friday, Mega Chairman Stephen Hall said the New Zealand-based encrypted service has a zero-tolerance policy for CSAM. “If any public link is reported to contain CSAM, we will immediately disable the link, permanently close the user’s account, and provide details to the New Zealand authorities and relevant international authorities.” writes Hall.
In an email Tuesday, Hall responded to the news that Mega-related terms had been blocked on Twitter, writing that it was “a pretty blunt reaction to a complicated situation.”
Layoffs and job cuts are weighing on the company’s Trust and Safety group, which has employees overseeing child safety, despite Musk’s claim on Twitter that CSAM is a priority to repeal. It looks like
According to Securities and Exchange Commission documents and internal records obtained by NBC News, less than half the number of employees working on trust and safety at the company today compared to the end of 2021. According to Bloomberg, the trust and safety team made further cuts this month.
A former employee, who requested anonymity because he signed a non-disclosure agreement, said many of the employees, especially those in charge of child safety issues, have left the company.
Irwin said in an email that Twitter “has about 25% more people on this issue/problem area now than it did at its peak last January.” “Many employees who were on the child safety team last year are no longer part of the company, mainly because Twitter experienced rapid layoffs across the company between January and August of last year,” she said. am.”
