Researchers at the prestigious Stanford University have made a chilling discovery about the Mastodon social network., which promised to be a more secure and decentralized alternative to Twitter. Unfortunately, a recently published report shows that Mastodon riddled with child abuse and pornographic material.
In the first cursory search, investigators found hundreds of posts with illegal material. already registered in specialized databases, as they were previously identified as malicious content. It is alarming that in less than five minutes of searching, these experts were able to uncover illegal content simply by using hashtags and keywords commonly associated with child pornography.
In addition to the direct messages, the researchers also found thousands of messages linking to external websites that were distributing such illegal material.. This discovery makes matters worse as it indicates that some Mastodon users are promoting and posting inappropriate content on external platforms.
One of the researchers involved, David Thiel, expressed concern in a statement to The Washington Post: “We’ve received more requests from photoDNA, a tool that identifies online sexual assault photos, in a two-day period than we’ve probably received in the entire history of our organization. when analyzing social networks, and it’s not even close. Much of this is simply the result of what appears to be a lack of tools that centralized social media platforms use to address child safety concerns.”
These revelations have sparked a major debate about the responsibility of social media platforms to protect the most vulnerable users, especially children. While Mastodon has been praised for its decentralized approach and the promise of a more secure online experience, it is clear that greater adoption of detection and moderation tools is needed to combat illegal and malicious content..
It is imperative that social media companies, including decentralized alternatives such as Mastodon, take responsibility and collaborate with experts and specialized organizations to provide a safe online environment free of illegal and offensive content. Respect for privacy and freedom of expression must go hand in hand with protecting the most vulnerable in the online community.
Source: La Opinion
Ashley Fitzgerald is an accomplished journalist in the field of technology. She currently works as a writer at 24 news breaker. With a deep understanding of the latest technology developments, Ashley’s writing provides readers with insightful analysis and unique perspectives on the industry.