Twitter struggling to contain child abuse content despite Musk’s promises
Christopher Hutton
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Twitter is struggling to limit child abuse material on its platform despite promises by CEO Elon Musk to stop its spread, according to reviews of the company’s algorithms.
The New York Times tested the accessibility of child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, by creating an account that used an automated program to search the platform for identified CSAM images and found that the algorithm recommended the content to users without reservations.
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The software found several images identified as abusive by anti-CSAM organizations like the Canadian Center for Child Protection within a few hours, including several accounts selling additional photos on the platform. The program found the images of 10 victims appearing more than 150 times over several accounts as of Thursday.
While the New York Times said it flagged the accounts after finding them, they were still left up afterward. The lack of response could be due to Twitter’s diminished staff, which was cut by 70% at least.
The Canadian Center for Child Protection did its own separate test to corroborate the New York Times’s results. The group attempted a search for a video series containing known victims and was able to find 31 different videos shared by 40 accounts. Several of the accounts were retweeted and liked thousands of times.
Musk stated that “removing child exploitation is priority #1” in late November. However, he has also emphasized cutting staff, which has likely limited the company’s ability to remove pornography from the platform. Big Tech has historically struggled with managing CSAM.
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Twitter previously committed to using more advanced tools for dedicating CSAM, including software developed by the nonprofit group Thorn. The company has not been paid since Musk took over, according to people familiar with the relationship.
Twitter has been in upheaval since Musk took over in October. The company has struggled to attract advertisers back to the platform due to Musk’s unpredictable behavior.