Adverts from tech giants helped to fund apps for paedophiles

APPS that direct paedophiles to illegal child porn sharing groups have profited from adverts from unwitting tech giants including Amazon, Microsoft and Dyson.

The apps were available on Google’s Play store until they were removed by the company over Christmas after it was alerted to their role in fuelling illegal child porn online.

Some of the apps have been downloaded more than 100,000 times and will still be functioning on the phones of people who purchased them, ac- cording to Antitoxin Technologies, an Israel-based child protection agency. They direct people to groups on Whatsapp, which Facebook owns, where hundreds of paedophiles openly share illegal child porn, most of which is recently produced, says Antitoxin.

By linking to Google and Facebook ad networks, the apps were able to financially support their activity by carrying adverts from household names including Amazon, Microsoft, Motorola, Sprint, Sprite, Western Union, Dyson, DJI, Gett and Yandex Music.

Google and Facebook said they had now taken action against the apps and reimbursed advertisers who had unwittingly funded the apps.

However, Antitoxin said illegal child porn sharing groups were still being run by paedophiles on Whatsapp. Roi Carthy, its chief marketing officer, said public chat groups should be shut down until Whatsapp had established a system to prevent paedophiles accessing or using them.

The Daily Telegraph is campaigning for a new statutory duty on social media firms requiring them to safeguard children from online harms.

Google said: “Google has a zero tolerance approach to child sexual abuse material and we thoroughly investigate any claims of this kind. As soon as we became aware of these Whatsapp group link apps using our services, we removed them from the Play store and stopped ads.

“These apps earned very little ad revenue and we’re terminating these accounts and refunding advertisers in accordance with our policies.”

Facebook said: “We do not support the monetisation of harmful content. We disable apps and withhold revenue from accounts found to be in violation of our policies or that are removed from third-party app stores.”