Wickr, Amazon’s encrypted chat app, has a child sex abuse problem | Hacker News Reader

Wickr, Amazon’s encrypted chat app, has a child sex abuse problem

nbcnews.com

6 pointscwwc4 comments

"... Amazon is doing comparatively little to proactively address the problem, experts and law enforcement officials say, attracting people who want to trade such material because there is less risk of detection than in the brighter corners of the internet."

So are we blaming encrypted chat for causing child porn to proliferate or are we blaming Amazon for not doing anything? If the apps is as it's advertised, it's end-to-end encrypted so there's nothing Amazon can do as they aren't privy to any of the data going through the system.

As for the assertion that "Amazon is attracting people who want to trade such materials" is borderline libelous. NBC is asserting that Amazon is marketing this app to kiddie porn perverts?

(And hasn't the same red herring been used against EVERY secure, end-to-end encrypted communications platform?)

Just stop pretending it's not a problem. Stop pretending that it's not easier than ever before the be active in nefarious activities as it is right now but I guess there is nothing useful to expect from someone labeling one of the most horrific abuses as "kiddie porn".

A red herring is information that is intended to distract or deceive.

It is not a red herring to state that videos of infants being violently raped by adult men are being shared through Amazon’s chat service. The claim is, by definition, not a red herring. It is absolute truth and is an issue about which we should be concerned and, indeed, very upset.

To my ear, describing it as “kiddy porn” sounds as if one imagines it to be Playboy-style erotica and not literal rape of young children too small to not be physically damaged.

Go search for “Peter Scully” for just one example of what is being produced for and propagated by the monsters you call “perverts.”

As the article and your quote say, the issue is "comparatively." Other apps are doing checks:

> According to a Meta spokesperson, WhatsApp has implemented numerous features to proactively detect and prevent the spread of child exploitation material, including limiting how many people can be shared on a viral image at one time and using photo-matching technology on rules-violation reports submitted to the company by users and non-encrypted photos found in profile or group avatars. Meta says it also uses machine learning to scan usernames and group descriptions for a potential sign of child exploitation material.

But Wickr is not checking as thoroughly as it could:

> Shehan noted one report to NCMEC’s tip line from a Wickr user as an example of what goes unchecked on the platform, in which he said a user flagged a Wickr account that was named “BabyAbuse,” which used a profile photo of an infant being sexually assaulted.

We can definitely criticize Wickr for not implementing industry best practices for something as important as this.

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