Linked – Child abuse image hash list shared with major web firms

“The 19,000 hashes have been “given to five global internet companies [Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo], who had volunteered to conduct a robust test on the list through their systems during the implementation period.”

The hashes, created during the implementation stage, were sourced from images forensically captured on the Home Office Child Abuse Image Database, which in turn was sourced from police investigations.

Crucially, with the use of the hash list project, child sexual abuse images will be prevented from being uploaded in the first place, thus giving internet companies the power to stop people from repeatedly sharing the images on their services, said IWF.”

This is a great use of this technology. I know there are hash lists in use by law enforcement, and I also know why their distribution has been limited, but it’s great to see technology companies cooperating to test the hash lists and take what is essentially a pretty easy step to eliminate the images from their service. It won’t eliminate all child abuse images, but the more people found sharing known images, the more likely we can find the people who are sharing the ones we don’t already know about.

Child abuse image hash list shared with major web firms

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