Instagram’s recommendation algorithms have enabled a “vast” network of pedophiles seeking illegal underage sexual content and activity.
’s recommendation algorithms have enabled a “vast” network of pedophiles seeking illegal underage sexual content and activity, according to a Wall Street Journal exposé.published Wednesday, the Journal said it conducted an investigation into child pornography on Instagram in collaboration with researchers at Stanford and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
“Pedophiles have long used the internet, but unlike the forums and file-transfer services that cater to people who have interest in illicit content, Instagram doesn’t merely host these activities. Its algorithms promote them,” the Journal reported. “Instagram connects pedophiles and guides them to content sellers via recommendation systems that excel at linking those who share niche interests.
“Child exploitation is a horrific crime. We work aggressively to fight it on and off our platforms, and to support law enforcement in its efforts to arrest and prosecute the criminals behind it,” the rep said in a statement.
Between 2020 and 2022, according to Meta, its policy enforcement teams “dismantled 27 abusive networks” and in January 2023 disabled more than 490,000 accounts for violating child-safety policies. As of Q4 2022, Meta’s technology removed more than 34 million pieces of child sexual exploitation content from Facebook and Instagram, more than 98% of which was detected before it was reported by users.
According to the Journal’s report, “Technical and legal hurdles make determining the full scale of the [pedophile] network hard for anyone outside Meta to measure precisely.” The article cited the Stanford Internet Observatory research team’s identification of 405 sellers of what they deemed “self-generated” child-sex material using hashtags associated with underage sex.
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