Meta ‘turns blind eye to online child sex abuse’
FACEBOOK owner Meta is ‘turning a blind eye’ to an epidemic of child sexual abuse on its platforms, the security minister warned yesterday.
Tom Tugendhat launched a scathing attack on the tech giant’s decision to encrypt private messages which he said would ‘allow predators to operate with impunity’ on Facebook and Instagram.
With law enforcement no longer able to spot evidence of grooming, tens of thousands of children would be put at danger of exploitation, he warned.
Singling out Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, the Tory MP said: ‘Companies like Meta enjoy vast power and influence over our lives. With that power should come responsibility. It’s not acceptable for tech executives to make vast profits from their youngest users, only to pass the buck when it comes to protecting them from the dangers their own platform create.’
He said social media sites such as Facebook – it accounts for two thirds of the 32million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation in the US – are a ‘one-stop shop’ for predators.
He announced the Home Office was about to launch a major publicity campaign against the decision to introduce end-to-end encryption on Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct. Meta has been planning to introduce the security feature, which stops people reading private messages, since 2019. But the government fears it will weaken the ability of law enforcement to uncover paedophiles.
Mr Tugendhat highlighted how Meta had helped the National Crime Agency catch David Wilson, one of the UK’s most prolific child sexual abuse offenders. Posing as a teenage girl on Facebook, he manipulated his victims into sending explicit material of themselves – then blackmailed them into abusing their friends and siblings.
In 2021, he was brought to justice after detectives were able to access some 250,000 Facebook messages.
In a speech at the Policing Institute for the Eastern Region’s annual conference, Mr Tugendhat said such cooperation had been a ‘lifeline’ for victims. He said there was technology available to protect messages while also keeping youngsters safe, but ‘Meta are just not choosing to’.
Meta said it remained committed to rolling out encryption, which has been delayed due to technical issues and regulatory pressures. A spokesman said: ‘We don’t think people want us reading their private messages so have developed safety measures that prevent, detect and allow us to take action against this heinous abuse.’
It comes as Meta was fined a record £1billion for mishandling Facebook users’ data. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said the firm had breached European General Data Protection Regulation rules for the way in which it moved data of European users to servers in the US.
‘A one-stop shop for predators’