Facebook Fights Child Pornography Using Microsoft Technology

Facebook takes child pornography seriously, and the social networking giant has implemented a Microsoft technology to clean out Internet’s vilest by-product by using a photo recognition technology called “PhotoDNA”.

PhotoDNA was developed by Microsoft and Dartmouth College in 2009, it is a technology that aids in finding and removing some of the “worst of the worst” of child sexual exploitations from the Internet. Soon after its development, the software giant donated the PhotoDNA technology to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).

Now, Facebook has decided to implement the technology in their website. Facebook aim’s to disrupt the spread of child pornography in their social networking website by analyzing all photos uploaded to Facebook and running them through PhotoDNA. PhotoDNA will then compare the uploaded photos to its database, and if it finds a match, it will immediately remove the photo from Facebook servers.

Facebook’s Statement

Since our founding, Facebook has continually been iterating on its technical systems and investigative techniques to proactively prevent abuse on our site. We view Photo DNA as the next logical step in helping protect children online.

The implementation of this technology was not a response to a specific increase in volume or particular incidents. Instead, it’s the more than 200 million images uploaded to our site daily that gives us the unique opportunity to prevent the further spread of these images & catch more bad guys.

Facebook also said that it is required by law to report all detected images of child pornography to NCMEC, which will forward the incident to appropriate law enforcement agency.

According to NCMEC CEO Ernie Allen, child pornography had been nearly eradicated in the 1980’s. But the advent of the Internet opened up a new way – an easier, safer and more anonymous way – to transmit and share illegal content.

 

Here’s a video from Microsoft about the partnership with Facebook and the NCMEC: