As Elon Musk’s Twitter, now called ‘X,’ has repeatedly asserted to have purged child abuse content from the platform, shocking findings reveal that Mastodon, the decentralized network championed as an alternative, harbors a dark secret of its own.
What Happened: Twitter, now rebranded as ‘X’ under Musk’s leadership, has previously made bold claims about successfully purging child abuse content from the platform.
However, Stanford’s Internet Observatory study has shed light on a disturbing truth — Mastodon, considered a viable alternative to Twitter, is prevalent with child sexual abuse material or CSAM.
In response to the report, Musk, who acquired Twitter for a staggering $44 billion in October 2022, made a noteworthy comment. He stated, “We kicked them off this (Twitter) platform, so they went elsewhere.”
This seemingly points to a migration of users who left the microblogging site to join Mastodon. Last year, between October and November, Mastodon’s monthly active users grew from 300,000 to 2.5 million. A massive credit for this growth was given to Twitter’s new leadership, failing to convince users to stay.
What Did The Study Find: The Internet Observatory researchers conducted a two-day investigation, scanning the 25 most popular Mastodon instances for CSAM. Their findings were deeply troubling, with 112 known CSAM discovered in over 325,000 posts. Shockingly, the first instance appeared after a mere five minutes of searching.
The research employed Google’s SafeSearch API to identify explicit images and PhotoDNA, a tool used to flag CSAM. The team found 554 pieces of content that matched hashtags or keywords typically used by child sexual abuse groups online, all identified as explicit with “highest confidence” by Google SafeSearch.
Why It’s Important: While Twitter may boast about its efforts to combat child abuse content, the unsettling findings about Mastodon highlight the need for a comprehensive approach to ensuring the safety of online spaces for all users, particularly vulnerable minors.
Last month, it was reported that Instagram’s recommendation system actively facilitates connections between pedophiles and content sellers, promoting numerous accounts dedicated to underage-sex content through explicit hashtag searches.
Instagram had over three times the number of accounts selling child sex abuse material compared to Musk’s Twitter, which showed a faster response in removing such accounts despite its smaller user base.
Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
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