Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc., and Meta Platforms, the company that owns Facebook, received court letters from an Australian regulator demanding they reveal their plans for preventing child abuse content on their platforms or face penalties.
The e-Safety Commissioner, a body created to safeguard internet users, claimed it used regulations that went into force in January to require the technological behemoths to reveal the steps they were taking to find and remove abusive content within 28 days. If they didn’t, each company would be subject to a daily fine of A$555,000 ($383,000).
The warning highlights Australia’s strict regulation of Big Tech companies since 2021, which has so far included legislation having them pay media outlets for using their content and rules requiring them to disclose information about anonymous accounts that post defamatory material.
Internet service providers are already facing pressure from governments across the globe to develop a solution to monitor encrypted messaging and streaming services for child abuse content without violating user privacy.
Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement that “this conduct is no longer restricted to obscure areas of the dark web but is pervasive on the mainstream platforms we and our children use every day.”
The worry is that this heinous content will proliferate unchecked on these platforms as more businesses implement features like livestreaming and encrypted messaging services.
A Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed that the company had received the letter and intended to react within 28 days. Microsoft is the owner of the video calling service Skype.
Despite still analysing the letter, Meta, which also owns the messaging app WhatsApp, continued to “proactively engage with the eSafety Commissioner on these vital topics,” according to a company representative.
A request for comment sent via email to Apple, the company behind the messaging apps iMessage, FaceTime, and iCloud, was not immediately answered.
The eSafety Commissioner cited statistics from the U.S. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which stated that in this year alone, internet businesses had generated 29.1 million reports of child abuse material, of which only 160 came from Apple and 22 million from Facebook.
