Stanford researchers unveil Mastodon CSAM crisis
According to recent Stanford's Internet Observatory research, Mastodon, the decentralized network seen as a viable alternative to Twitter, is crowded with child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Researchers searched 325,000 posts on the network in just two days and discovered 112 instances of known CSAM, with the first one turning up after only five minutes of searching.
According to The Verge, The Internet Observatory searched the 25 most popular Mastodon instances for CSAM as part of their investigation. Researchers also used PhotoDNA, a technique that locates CSAM that has been identified, and Google's SafeSearch API to find explicit photos.
The team's search yielded 554 pieces of content, all of which were classified as explicit in the "highest confidence" by Google SafeSearch, matching hashtags or keywords frequently used by online groups that promote child sexual abuse.
There were 713 uses of the hashtags
The top 20 CSAM-related hashtags were also used 713 times on postings with media across the Fediverse, and 1,217 text-only posts referred to "off-site CSAM trading or grooming of minors." The open posting of CSAM is described in the report as being "disturbingly prevalent."
One instance cited the prolonged mastodon.xyz server failure as an instance of an event brought on by CSAM published on Mastodon. The server's sole administrator claimed they were informed of CSAM-containing content in a post about the incident. Still, he also noted that moderation is done in his spare time and can take up to a few days to complete — this isn't a massive operation like Meta with a global team of contractors; it's just one person.
Even though they claimed to have taken action against the offending content, the mastodon.xyz domain's host had nonetheless suspended it, rendering the server unreachable to users until they could get in touch with someone to get its listing restored. Mastodon.xyz's administrator reports that after the problem was fixed, the registrar moved the domain to a "false positive" list to stop further takedowns. The researchers note, however, that "what caused the action was not a false positive."
Advertisement
Uhh, this has already been possible – I am not sure how but remember my brother telling me about it. I’m not a whatsapp user so not sure of the specifics, but something about sending the image as a file and somehow bypassing the default compression settings that are applied to inbound photos.
He has also used this to share movies to whatsapp groups, and files 1Gb+.
Like I said, I never used whatsapp, but I know 100% this isn’t a “brand new feature”, my brother literally showed me him doing it, like… 5 months ago?
Martin, what happened to those: 12 Comments (https://www.ghacks.net/chatgpt-gets-schooled-by-princeton-university/#comments). Is there a specific justifiable reason why they were deleted?
Hmm, it looks like the gHacks website database is faulty, and not populating threads with their relevant cosponsoring posts.
The page on ghacks this is on represents the best of why it has become so worthless, fill of click-bait junk that it’s about to be deleted from my ‘daily reads’.
It’s really like “Press Release as re-written by some d*ck for clicks…poorly.” And the subjects are laughable. Can’t wait for “How to search for files on Windows”.
> The page on ghacks this is on represents the best of why it has become so worthless, fill of click-bait junk…
Sadly, I have to agree.
Only Martin and Ashwin are worth subscribing to.
Especially Emre Çitak and Shaun are the worst ones.
If ghacks.net intended “Clickbait”, it would mark the end of Ghacks Technology News.
Ghacks doesn’t need crappy clickbaits. Clearly separate articles from newer authors (perhaps AIs and external sales person or external advertising man) as just “Advertisements”!
We, the subscribers of Ghacks, urge Martin to make a decision.
because nevermore wants to “monetize” on every aspect of human life…
“Threads” is like the Walmart of Social Media.
How hard can it be to clone a twitter version of that as well? They’re slow.
Yes, why not mention how large the HD files can be?
Why, not mention what version of WhatsApp is needed?
These omissions make the article feel so bare. If not complete.
Sorry posted on the wrong page.
such a long article for such a simple matter. Worthless article ! waste of time
I already do this by attaching them via the ‘Document’ option.
I don’t know what’s going on here at Ghacks but it’s obvious that something is broken, comments are being mixed whatever the article, I am unable to find some of my later posts neither. :S
Quoting the article,
“As users gain popularity, the value of their tokens may increase, allowing investors to reap rewards.”
Besides, beyond the thrill and privacy risks or not, the point is to know how you gain popularity, be it on social sites as everywhere in life. Is it by being authentic, by remaining faithful to ourselves or is it to have this particular skill which is to understand what a majority likes, just like politicians, those who’d deny to the maximum extent compatible with their ideological partnership, in order to grab as many of the voters they can?
I see the very concept of this Friend.tech as unhealthy, propagating what is already an increasing flaw : the quest for fame. I won’t be the only one to count himself out, definitely.
@John G. is right : my comment was posted on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/23/what-is-friend-tech/] and it appears there but as well here at [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/08/how-to-follow-everyone-on-threads/]
This has been lasting for several days. Fix it or at least provide some explanations if you don’t mind.
> Google Chrome is following in Safari’s footsteps by introducing a new feature that allows users to move the Chrome address bar to the bottom of the screen, enhancing user accessibility and interaction.
Firefox did this long before Safari.
Basically they’ll do anything except fair royalties.