World

Planned EU laws on child sexual abuse have sparked a privacy row. Why?

Published

1 year ago

October 22, 2023

Planned EU laws on child sexual abuse have sparked a privacy row. Why?

Some have argued the proposed EU law could usher in mass surveillance in the bloc through the scanning of all communications, including encrypted messages.

Rhiannon was just thirteen when she was groomed online, coerced and sexually abused.

Her perpetrator was charged, but the impact of his crimes runs deep.

“I didn’t speak about my abuse for a very long time,” Rhiannon, a survivor and head of advocacy at the Marie Collins Foundation, told Euronews. “I suffered with anxiety, panic attacks, depression, self-harm and suicide attempts.”

Today, at 33, she lives in the knowledge that images and videos of her abuse are still circulating online. But she speaks out, calling for stronger regulation to clamp down on sexual predators.

On Thursday, European Union ministers will discuss sweeping new laws proposed by the European Commission to tackle child sexual abuse online and to ensure crimes, such as those committed against Rhiannon, are not re-lived day after day on the Internet.

A British citizen, Rhiannon says the proposed EU regulation together with the UK’s Online Safety Bill, which will soon become law, are critical in the global fight against child sexual abuse.

The EU’s planned laws would use emerging technologies to detect new and existing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and child grooming activities, and would give national authorities the power to oblige digital services to scan users’ communications, including encrypted messages.

But a bitter row has erupted, pitting child protection advocates against digital rights lobbies, who claim it will instigate a mass surveillance regime and spell the end of digital privacy as we know it. Supporters say failing to pass the regulation would leave criminals undetected and big tech unregulated.

Between both camps is a tightrope that is proving difficult to tread: how to catch child abusers without undermining our privacy online.

Are the technologies mature enough?

To detect existing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) known to law enforcement, the Commission has proposed using the so-called perceptual hash function, which takes a fingerprint, or hash, of harmful files and detects replicates across the internet.

But academic experts warn that perpetrators can easily manipulate images to dodge detection, and that innocent users could be wrongfully accused: “The problem is that it’s very easy to break the hash by changing one pixel or even by slightly cropping the image,” professor Bart Preneel, a cryptography expert at KU Leuven university, explained. “It’s also possible for a perfectly legitimate image to be flagged as a false positive.”

The Commission wants to set up an EU Centre on Child Sexual Abuse in the Hague, where staff would be hired to manually filter content flagged as illegal in order to avoid flooding law enforcement agencies with false positives.

But civil society organisation ECPAT International says there is sufficient evidence that perceptual hash technologies do work.

“These technologies are not merely promising; they are proven. Hash-based methods have been effective for over a decade, enabling swifter action against illegal content and aiding law enforcement. For example, more than 200 companies use PhotoDNA technology to prevent their services from being used to spread child sexual abuse materials,” an ECPAT spokesperson said.

The Commission also wants to use artificial intelligence (AI) to detect newly created CSAM as well as to flag behavioural patterns that could amount to child grooming. Preneel told Euronews these methods would pose an even greater risk of false incrimination.

“Even if we reduce the error rate to 1%, with billions of images sent in the EU every day we could be looking at tens of millions of daily false positives,” Preneel warned. “We could be incriminating innocent people, accusing them of the most serious of crimes.”

Preneel also warns teenagers voluntarily and legally sharing nude images amongst each other could be wrongfully criminalised.

But while recognising that language-based AI models to detect grooming behaviour still need maturing, ECPAT says AI has been successfully deployed to detect new CSAM with “low error rates”.

“CSAM detection tools are specifically trained not to find legal images,” the ECPAT spokesperson explained. “These tools are trained on known CSAM, adult pornography and benign images, particularly to distinguish between them and to keep benign imagery from being misinterpreted as CSAM.”

Mié Kohiyama, a survivor and co-Founder of the Brave Movement from France who, like Rhiannon, advocates for stronger regulation, says the prevalence of child abuse images and videos online means the European Union has a responsibility to take action.

“More than 60% of these images are hosted on European servers, so we have a responsibility to act upon it,” she explained. “Detection is key, and removal is key.”

Would the new rules undermine privacy?

The most contested aspect of the Commission’s proposal is the obligation on tech companies to deploy client-side scanning (CSS) technology to scan the messages of users, including end-to-end encrypted communications on platforms such as Meta’s Whatsapp, when a risk is identified.

This would mean the encrypted messages, pictures, emails and voice notes of users could be tapped into.

Privacy advocates warn this amounts to a serious breach of people’s right to privacy online, and could be easily manipulated by malicious actors. CSS was deployed briefly by Apple in 2021 to scan iCloud uploads, but was taken down within weeks when the system was hijacked.

But ECPAT International says it is important to remember that CSS operates “before data becomes encrypted.”

“It does so by flagging CSAM before it is uploaded and sent through an encrypted environment – the same way as WhatsApp, an end-to-end encrypted service, already deploys technology to detect malware and viruses,” an ECPAT spokesperson said.

Critics also warn undermining encryption could set a dangerous precedent for authoritarian regimes, who could manipulate the technology to detect criticism and target dissidents.

Mié says such scaremongering is simply a means of diverting attention from the real issue.

“This regulation would have safeguards,” she said. “Europe is a democracy, not a dictatorship. And let’s not be naive: in a dictatorship, when you want to spy on citizens you do spy on citizens. You don’t need a new regulation.”

Can EU ministers find a compromise?

The proposed regulation has torn EU capitals, with many concerned about the technologies’ maturity and the threat to consumer privacy. Ministers may choose to green-light certain aspects of the text, while putting other plans on hold until technologies have sufficiently matured.

Mié and Rhiannon told Euronews ministers should avoid bowing to the pressure of big tech and digital lobbies. They say the steep rise in abusive material shows that tech companies’ voluntary measures to detect and take down content are clearly insufficient. A study released on Tuesday by the WeProtect Global Alliance suggests reported child sexual abuse material has increased by 87% since 2019.

“Tech companies design their products to entice children and engage them for as long as possible. If that’s their model, it has to be a safe environment for children,” Rhiannon said.

“The model of self-regulation for tech companies hasn’t worked, this is clear from the number of children being abused. We have to legislate on this issue, we have to force the hand of tech companies to protect children,” she added.

Mié also believes the bloc has a responsibility to protect survivors of digital-assisted abuse from the re-traumatisation of knowing images of their abuse are being viewed every day.

“These survivors are afraid of everything. They’re not able to leave their homes. For some of them, they are afraid even of using the Internet. These are people that are totally marginalised from society,” she said. “We have to protect them. We have to protect children. It has to come first in everybody’s mind.”

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World

Ukraine's Yermak meets senior Trump advisers, source says

Published

3 hours ago

December 4, 2024

Press Room

Ukraine's Yermak meets senior Trump advisers, source says

Ukrainian delegation met on Wednesday with senior representatives of President-elect Donald Trump, a source familiar with the meeting said, as Ukraine seeks support from the incoming team in its war to repel Russian invaders.

The Ukrainian delegation was led by Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The group met in Washington with Trump’s choice for White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and his Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, the source said, without providing details.

The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment about the meeting.

Trump has vowed to bring about a negotiated end to the nearly three-year-old conflict between Ukraine and Russia, but has thus far not provided details.

World

Lawmakers hold moment of silence for slain Omer Neutra as thousands mourn in hometown synagogue

Published

3 hours ago

December 4, 2024

Press Room

Lawmakers hold moment of silence for slain Omer Neutra as thousands mourn in hometown synagogue

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A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday night held a moment of silence for American-Israeli Omer Neutra who was determined this week to have been killed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, after it was believed that he had been alive for more than a year.

Neutra, 21 years old, was a tank platoon commander in the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and was among the first to respond to the Hamas attack that ultimately killed some 1,200 people and initially saw the abduction of more than 250 men, women and children.

His parents, Orna and Ronen, who spoke with Fox News Digital just days prior to the tragic development, believed their son was still alive after the IDF had long assessed that he, along with Nimrod Cohen, another soldier from his tank, were taken hostage into Gaza and remained alive.

An image of Omer Neutra is displayed at his memorial service Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024 at the Midway Jewish Center in Syosset, N.Y. (AP Photo/Philip Marcelo) (AP Photo/Philip Marcelo)

7 US HOSTAGES STILL HELD BY HAMAS TERRORISTS AS FAMILIES PLEAD FOR THEIR RELEASE: ‘THIS IS URGENT’

“For 420 days Omer’s parents and his brother Daniel have done everything they can with the love and support of hundreds of thousands of others to free their son from captivity,” Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., who represents the Neutra family’s district, said from the House floor. “Every day they soldiered on through alternating deep sorrow and brief bursts of hopefulness. They went from crushing anxiety to steely determination.

“Just a few days ago we learned that this courageous young man, this bright light, this courageous idealist, made the ultimate sacrifice,” Suozzi continued. “Omer had not been alive for the last 422 days, he was murdered on Oct. 7.”

Footage from the attack on Omer’s tank showed the commander, as well as three others, Shaked Dahan, Oz Daniel and Nimrod Cohen being pulled from the military vehicle by Hamas terrorists and being taken captive.

Daniel and Dahan had previously been assessed to have been killed following the attack, and according to the IDF, intelligence now suggests Omer, a descendant of Holocaust survivors, was also killed on Oct. 7. 2023.

Syosset, N.Y.: Daniel Neutral, brother of Omar Neutra, surrounded by father Ronen Neutra and mother Orna Neutra at the Midway Jewish Center on Dec. 3, 2024 in Syosset, New York speak during a memorial service for Omer Neutra, an Isaeli-American who was killed by Hamas militants. (Howard Schnapp/Newsday RM via Getty Images)

AMERICAN FATHER OF HAMAS HOSTAGE ITAY CHEN PUSHES US, ISRAEL ON ‘PLAN B’ AS NEGOTIATIONS FALTER

The Israeli military has not said how they came by this new information and the fate of Cohen remains unknown.

In a memorial service held for Omer on Tuesday in the Long Island synagogue where he reportedly celebrated his bar mitzvah years earlier, Omer’s father Ronen, said the news had left them “breathless and empty.”

“For over a year now, we’ve been breathing life into your being, my beautiful boy,” Orna said through tears, according to reports. “With the hope and love of so many, we kept going and going and going, keeping you alive, speaking your name from every outlet, pushing any hint of despair, not stopping to breathe or to take in the deep pain of your absence.”

“Now things are clear,” she said to the reported 1,500 attendees at the service. “But not as we’d hoped.”

Onra and Ronen have described their son as loving, a good friend and an athlete, but they also highlighted his ability to lead and how his actions on Oct. 7, 2023 saved lives.

Omer’s body is believed to still be held by Hamas along with the six other American hostages, only three of whom are still assessed by the IDF to be alive at this time, including Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Keith Siegel.

Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s body was recovered after he, along with five others, were discovered to have been murdered by Hamas in the tunnels in Gaza in August.

These are the American hostages who were taken by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023 and held in Gaza, only Hersh Goldberg-Polin (Left) has been returned to Israel after the IDF found him and other hostages killed by terrorists. Pictured next to Hersh is Itay Chen, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra, Gadi Haggai and Judi Weinstein Haggai and Keith Siegel. (Fox News Photo)

There are still 100 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza following the recovery of Itai Svirski’s body on Wednesday, an Israeli hostage taken during the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7, 2023.

The IDF confirmed he “was murdered in captivity by his captors, and his body was held hostage in the Gaza Strip.”

World

At least 50 people killed in Israeli strikes on homes, camps in Gaza

Published

4 hours ago

December 4, 2024

Press Room

At least 50 people killed in Israeli strikes on homes, camps in Gaza

At least 50 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes across Gaza, Palestinian medics say, as Israeli tanks push into northern parts of the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza.

Medics said at least 20 people were killed and others wounded in an Israeli attack on Wednesday on a tent encampment in al-Mawasi near Khan Younis. The Palestinian Civil Defence said the attack set several tents housing displaced families ablaze.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said the death toll was expected to rise.

Patients who are in the hospital were “expected to lose their lives simply because there is no medical care, medical supplies and insufficient medical staff,” Mahmoud said.

“This is not the first time we’ve seen this happening. There’s a growing frustration among the displaced population in the al-Mawasi evacuation zone,” he said. “The Israeli military ordered them in the initial weeks of this genocidal war to evacuate in order to avoid being bombed, but they repeatedly find themselves the victims of these unpredictable attacks.”

At least 10 people were killed in an Israeli air strike that hit three houses in Gaza City, the Civil Defence said. Many victims were still trapped under the rubble with rescue operations under way.

Medics said 11 people were killed in three air strikes on areas in central Gaza, including six children and a medic. Five of the dead had been queueing outside a bakery, they said.

A further nine Palestinians were killed by tank fire in Rafah near the border with Egypt, medics said.

‘Extremely urgent’

Israeli forces also fired on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza for the fifth straight day, hospital Director Hussam Abu Safiya said. Three of his medical staff had been wounded, one critically, on Tuesday night, he said.

“Drones are dropping bombs filled with shrapnel that injure anyone that dares to move,” Abu Safiya said. “This situation is extremely urgent.”

He said more than 100 patients inside the besieged hospital are at risk of death and Israeli forces are preventing access to the nearby al-Awda Hospital.

Residents in the north’s main three towns – Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoon – said Israeli forces have blown up dozens of houses.

Palestinians said Israel’s army is trying to drive people out of the northern edge of Gaza by issuing threats that if residents do not flee, they risk death and by carrying out bombardments to create a buffer zone. The Israeli military has besieged the area since it began a renewed ground offensive there nearly two months ago.

The siege has worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis amid a looming famine.

Hamas said the bombings of homes in Beit Lahiya and the targeting of Kamal Adwan Hospital are “an insistence on the ongoing war” and “genocide” in Gaza.

The group said in a statement that Israel is showing it plans to keep disregarding international law “in light of the shameful failure of the international system to put an end to these horrific crimes”.

Hamas said Israeli actions “are carried out under the full cover and protection of the American administration and some Western capitals”.

In the Khan Younis area, residents told the Reuters news agency that Israeli tanks advanced a day after the military issued new evacuation threats, saying there had been rocket launches by Palestinian groups from the area.

With shells crashing near residential areas, families left their homes on Wednesday and headed westwards towards al-Mawasi, which was designated by the Israeli military as a “safe zone” but has since repeatedly come under attack.

Palestinian and United Nations officials said there are no safe areas left in Gaza and almost all of its 2.3 million residents have been displaced multiple times.

Israel’s military campaign has killed more than 44,500 Palestinians, injured many others and reduced much of the enclave to rubble since it began in October last year.

Israel agreed to a ceasefire with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah last week that has halted most fighting in a conflict that has unfolded in Lebanon in parallel with the Gaza war.

But the war in Gaza has ground on with only a single ceasefire more than a year ago that lasted for one week.