The BBC's investigation found 80 per cent of child sexual abuse content it reported was not removed by the social network

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/facebook-child-abuse-images-bbc-investigation


A BBC investigation has revealed that 80 per cent of child abuse images it reported to Facebook were not removed. Facebook responded to the allegations by requesting the BBC send examples of the material to it, then reporting the team to the authorities for sending them.

Facebook is regularly in the headlines for some of its incongruent moderation practices - removing photos of breastfeeding mothers, but allowing violent footage of beheadings, for instance. However, in this instance, the BBC is suggesting the content and its validity on the site is black and white.

The BBC described the content as “images from groups where men were discussing swapping what appeared to be child abuse material”, including: “pages explicitly for men with a sexual interest in children; images of under-16s in highly sexualised poses, with obscene comments posted beside them; groups with names such as ‘hot xxxx schoolgirls’ containing stolen images of real children; an image that appeared to be a still from a video of child abuse, with a request below it to share ‘child pornography’.” It also claimed to have identified five convicted paedophiles with profiles on the platform, none of whom were removed after the BBC reported them.

The BBC specifically launched its investigation to test Facebook’s moderation procedures, after its 2016 investigation found the network was being used by groups of paedophiles to meet and exchange content. Of the 100 images reported by the BBC in its current investigation, using Facebook’s standard reporting tools, 18 were removed and the rest were found not to breach its terms.