Censorship?

chicorytip · 02-05-2021 9:43pm #1

I read that Cllr. Elisa O'Donovan this morning was the recipient of a WhatsApp message from some "gentleman" which featured a photograph of him brandishing his erect penis. She has reported the matter to Henry Street Gardai. I wonder why social media apps seem to have ineffective measures in place to prevent this kind of criminal activity taking place.

banie01 · 03-05-2021 12:14pm

For the same reason that if I put a photo of my erect penis into an envelope and post it to someone, that An Post isn't responsible for the content of the envelope.

If the messaging are to be believed, your message is sent to your recipient with no review or assessment by the messaging platform.
Many apps build their platform on being end to end encrypted and as such the platform is not responsible for the content.

If you receive harassment online, report it.
But blaming the platform for not censoring private communication?
That's a bit of a ridiculous stance tbh and only leads down the path of eliminating even the perception of personal and private communication.

osarusan · 03-05-2021 12:21pm

How does 'Censorship??' tie into it? Has there been some? Or has there not been enough?

Unless Whatsapp or any other messaging app previews and approves every message, which is utterly impossible, these images can't be stopped.

All people can do is react, which O'Donovan has done.

How much Whatsapp can/will help the Gardai with their investigation is another question (If one is needed, perhaps O'Donocan knows who it is? I don't know if she does or not).

Clareman · 03-05-2021 12:46pm

Moving this thread from the Limerick Regional forum as I feel this would be a better fit. Please take note of the new charter in place.

chicorytip · 03-05-2021 4:45pm

osarusan wrote: »

How does 'Censorship??' tie into it? Has there been some? Or has there not been enough?

Unless Whatsapp or any other messaging app previews and approves every message, which is utterly impossible, these images can't be stopped.

All people can do is react, which O'Donovan has done.

How much Whatsapp can/will help the Gardai with their investigation is another question (If one is needed, perhaps O'Donocan knows who it is? I don't know if she does or not).

The sender of the message, in this instance, must be aware of her mobile phone number. I presume that number is in the public domain anyway because of her work as a local politician. My point relates to the lack of some in built filter that can detect such content and prevent it being sent. Facebook has these. I know that's a tenuous correlation.

amen · 03-05-2021 4:50pm

But why should a private company regulate what is sent between two people ? Should they investigate every message ? What about WhatsApp message asking for someone to paint your house ? Should WhatsApp
Flag that as maybe there is no tax paid?

Should An Post open every letter to ensure There are no Disapproved pictures in the letter ?

Where do stop ?

Trigger Happy · 04-05-2021 8:51am

Blaming Whatsapp for this is like blaming Vodafone for providing the bandwidth for the message to be sent.

cee_jay · 04-05-2021 8:54am

chicorytip wrote: »

The sender of the message, in this instance, must be aware of her mobile phone number. I presume that number is in the public domain anyway because of her work as a local politician. My point relates to the lack of some in built filter that can detect such content and prevent it being sent. Facebook has these. I know that's a tenuous correlation.

How would an AI know what is legitimate or not? Not all communication with this content is malicious.
The only person to blame here is the sender, it is sexual harassment.

biko · 04-05-2021 12:48pm

I'd be more worried if things I send to people are opened and checked in transit. That would be quite an invasion of my privacy.

hazemat · 10-05-2021 4:01pm

cee_jay wrote: »

How would an AI know what is legitimate or not? Not all communication with this content is malicious.
The only person to blame here is the sender, it is sexual harassment.

Technology is sufficiently advanced to be able to reduce this sort of thing. Twitter AI can blur media items it deems sensitive and the user then has to click on it to show the image. This combined with a basic check on any unrecognised sender numbers should be able to at least filter some of the nasty stuff out before being seen by the recipient. Sophisticated AI can do this at scale without affecting privacy.

AndrewJRenko · 10-05-2021 4:05pm

From what I read of WhatsApp security model, your messages are encrypted before they leave the sender's device and can only be decrypted by the recipient. So they can't look at the content of messages in transit.

Ravendale · 11-08-2021 7:19am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117126478#Comment_117126478

I think there are changes afoot. WhatsApp (Facebook) are attempting to stop fake news by stopping anyone from forwarding fake news now by stopping a person forwarding a message more than 6 times. If it's encrypted then how do they know what messages you have.or if they're fake, .? You could have a family gathering.. What about poor grandma, if she doesn't get her invite. 😢😢😂

AndrewJRenko · 11-08-2021 12:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117736019#Comment_117736019

Not sure, but they could be identifying frequently forwarded messages by looking at the encrypted version of the message possibly

https://www.techradar.com/news/how-whatsapp-is-tackling-the-spread-of-fake-news-during-covid-19

Censorship?

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