Who has blood on their hands?
“YOU have blood on your hands; your product is killing people.” This is the shocking accusation hurled by Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina at Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg during a United States Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on online child safety recently.
Parents, beware: your kids are affected for sure. The hearing came as child sexual abuse images continue to proliferate on social media and as other harmful content is being carried through telecommunications companies. Is it time to tell the Philippine telecoms sector the same thing?
The many harmful postings and communications on major social media platforms made through internet service providers (ISPs) are leading to cases of sextortion, suicides, drug overdoses, blackmail, children being groomed for rape and other sexual abuses, excessive gambling, and scams and fraud, among others. These platforms are like crime scenes, but no one is truly held accountable. The chiefs of the companies behind these platforms are being challenged to take responsibility and stop the abuse and harm their products are inflicting on both children and adults. They must be held accountable for what they allow on their platforms.
There is a rising clamor worldwide for the US to do more to control questionable content and change Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which says “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”
This means platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, cannot be held liable for what others post on them. After that law passed, the lawmakers had no idea that it would eventually unleash on the platforms a torrent of hate speech, abuse and other evil activities that were committed and ultimately shared with others.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said Discord was one of many social media platforms used for criminal purposes. “Discord has been used to groom, abduct and abuse children. Meta’s Instagram helped connect and promote a network of pedophiles; Snapchat’s disappearing messages have been co-opted by criminals who financially sextort young victims,” he said.
On drug sales made over platforms carried by all ISPs, including the Philippines’ PLDT Inc., Globe Telecom and DITO Telecommunity, the worst peddlers are those selling dangerous drugs on the internet and delivering these by courier companies disguised as toiletries, cosmetics and so on. Meanwhile, the previous administration’s war on illegal drugs targeted impoverished users, including malnourished and constantly exhausted pedicab cyclists like Ben Santos (not his real name), who would spend P50 for a sachet of methamphetamine or shabu so he could keep pedaling into the night and earn more to feed his family. Ben was accosted one night by an unidentified anti-drug hit squad and shot dead. He probably refused to give up the name of his pusher.
The real drug smugglers, traffickers and users are the elites living in high-rise condominiums and getting their supplies over the internet through the platforms to satisfy their addiction and for consumption at their expensive, highpowered parties. Many teenagers have been enticed to buy fentanyl through Instagram or Facebook; some consequently died. That led to Zuckerberg being accused of having “blood on his hands.” So many have died as a result of crimes like illegal drug peddling. Who else also has blood on their hands?
How many thousands of young people have been psychologically damaged, groomed sexually and abused online by the sex shows they are forced to participate in for the gratification of local and foreign pedophiles? These pedophiles entice and pay some people to sexually abuse their own children or neighbors on video live to satisfy their urges. Some teenagers are lured to present themselves in sexually suggestive poses to a person they have come to trust online but who is actually an extortionist demanding money or sex.
This is what Fr. Karole Reward Israel, now jailed and on trial in Cagayan province, allegedly did. He admitted to grooming and having sexual encounters but claims these were consensual. Yet he secretly recorded the alleged rape and sexual assault of his teenage victim. He then blackmailed her to continue being abused without her complaining by threatening to leak the video online. Before the internet and social media platforms, this would not have been possible. The enablers of such crimes, like the ISPs, must be held accountable.
Thousands of children are exploited, and many can’t pay. Some even commit suicide as a result. Philippine law demands that telecommunications companies (telcos) and ISPs block child abuse material online by installing artificial intelligence (AI)-powered detection and blocking software. Apparently, they are not doing it. The telcos say they are working with the Internet Watch Foundation and have blocked or reported thousands of offending websites.
They should install such highpowered software that would enable them to identify bad content, filter and block them, capture the images, and report these to the police. But it seems they have not done that yet. Some experts say installing it would slow down internet service — and the fast-flowing money into the telcos’ bank accounts. The Philippines is a hub of such online abuse, and international police say it continues. This form of child abuse continues as reports continue to come in from international law enforcement agencies, investigators and monitoring nongovernment organizations.
The case of three 10-year-old boys who watched a child being sexually abused on a cellphone and later raped a 6-year-old girl shows the terrible effect it has on children. There are hundreds of thousands of abusive blogs, websites, and child abuse images and videos passing through the telcos and ISP servers daily. This is an apparent failure to take effective measures with AI software and start blocking such content. They could save thousands of children from abuse if they decided to act.
Unlike the weak laws — or lack of them — in the US, our laws protecting children from online sexual abuse are clear and strong, but it seems there is no government agency with the courage or commitment to enforce them. Do they have blood on their hands, too?