Category Archives: Facebook

Facebook must change its mind

Posted on May 25, 2021 by John Carr

Over 90% of the reports shown in the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s graph below came from Facebook owned properties, principally Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct. Yet the company intends to avert its eyes from these Apps. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple, Child abuse images, Facebook, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

Government in a muddle over porn

Posted on May 15, 2021 by John Carr

On the morning of 11th May the Queen’s Speech was delivered and published. In the afternoon, Caroline Dinenage MP appeared before the Communications and Digital Committee of the House of Lords. Ms Dinenage is the Minister of State responsible for … Continue reading →

Posted in Age verification, Facebook, Google, Internet governance, Pornography, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

Move slow and leave things broken

Posted on May 11, 2021 by John Carr

On 20th December, 2020, a new EU-wide law took effect. An unintended consequence appeared to call into question the legality of companies continuing to look for child sexual abuse materials being exchanged over messaging platforms. It also appeared to call … Continue reading →

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Great news for children coming out of Brussels

Posted on April 30, 2021 by John Carr

Last night in Brussels it was announced that a political agreement had been reached on the interim derogation. In plain English what that means is, pretty much immediately, we can go back to the position we all thought we were … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Default settings, E-commerce, Facebook, Google, ICANN, Internet governance, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment

Trends and Facebook on manoeuvres

Posted on March 1, 2021 by John Carr

Last Wednesday the USA’s National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) published its numbers for 2020. 16.9 million reports received in 2019  grew to 21.7 million in 2020. That’s up over 25%. Messaging platforms remain the largest source. 21.4 … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Facebook, Internet governance, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The shame continues

Posted on February 8, 2021 by John Carr

Last Thursday afternoon the LIBE Committee of the European Parliament met. The proceedings are viewable. The meeting was scheduled to take two hours.  It had several items to discuss. The earlier ones overran. When the question of the derogation and … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Consent, Facebook, Google, Internet governance, Microsoft, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Regrets? I’ve had a few….

Posted on January 24, 2021 by John Carr

Last week (20th January) the UK Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee interviewed representatives of Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Google, Snap and Tik Tok. The Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee is Yvette Cooper, an intellectual heavyweight of the first water. … Continue reading →

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Absurdities and atrocities

Posted on January 12, 2021 by John Carr

Voltaire famously said “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” History is littered with examples of this and last week in the USA we saw the same thing played out again. Lies and travelling trousers … Continue reading →

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A very bad day for children in Europe

Posted on December 21, 2020 by John Carr

If you live in an EU Member State and you have used Facebook Messenger or Instagram Direct today you probably saw this message. “Some features are not available. This is to respect new rules for messaging services in Europe. We’re … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Default settings, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | 1 Comment

Joy tinged with anger

Posted on November 11, 2020 by John Carr

At 5.00.a.m. today the Head of Instagram published a blog entitled “An important step towards better protecting our community in Europe”.  There is much that is important and of interest in Facebook’s blog so please read it but here, for … Continue reading →

Posted in Child abuse images, Default settings, Facebook, Privacy, Regulation, Self-regulation | Leave a comment