SYDNEY (Reuters) – An Australian regulator, after using latest powers to make the tech giants share details about their methods, accused Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp not doing enough to stop child exploitation content on their platforms.
The e-Safety Commissioner, an office arrange to guard web users, said that after sending legal demands for information to a few of the world’s biggest web firms, the responses showed Apple and Microsoft didn’t proactively screen for child abuse material of their storage services, iCloud and OneDrive.
The 2 firms also confirmed they didn’t use any technology to detect live-streaming of kid sexual abuse on video services Skype and Microsoft Teams, that are owned by Microsoft, and FaceTime, which is owned by Apple, the commissioner said in a report published on Thursday.
A Microsoft spokesperson said the corporate was committed to combatting proliferation of abuse material but “as threats to kid’s safety proceed to evolve and bad actors develop into more sophisticated of their tactics, we proceed to challenge ourselves to adapt our response”.
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Apple was not immediately available for comment.
The disclosure confirms gaps within the child protection measures of a few of the world’s biggest tech firms, constructing public pressure on them to do more, in response to the commissioner. Meta Platforms Inc, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and Snapchat owner Snap Inc also got demands for information.
The responses overall were “alarming” and raised concerns of “clearly inadequate and inconsistent use of widely available technology to detect child abuse material and grooming”, commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in an announcement.
Microsoft and Apple “don’t even try and proactively detect previously confirmed child abuse material” on their storage services, although a Microsoft-developed detection product is utilized by law enforcement agencies.
An Apple announcement every week ago that it might stop scanning iCloud accounts for child abuse, following pressure from privacy advocates, was “a serious step backwards from their responsibilities to assist keep children protected” Inman Grant said.
The failure of each firms to detect live-streamed abuse amounted to “a few of the biggest and richest technology firms on the planet turning a blind eye and failing to take appropriate steps to guard probably the most vulnerable from probably the most predatory”, she added.
($1 = 1.4588 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Byron Kaye. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
