The EU Internal Market Commissioner has urged Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, to investigate a report of a large pedophile network on Instagram and take action immediately. A Wall Street Journal article revealed that several members of the network linked via the platform created depictions of child sexual abuse and even commissioned recordings. The Commissioner will hold discussions with Zuckerberg at Meta’s headquarters in California on June 23 and has warned of heavy sanctions if the Digital Services Act is not adhered to. The Act enshrines EU-wide due diligence obligations for digital services, including regulations for removing illegal content quickly.
The Commission will also expand its online monitoring and introduce chat control under the pretense of fighting child sexual abuse. According to the WSJ investigation, Instagram not only hosts pedophiles but actively promotes them through its recommendation system and explicit hashtags. The platform even permits accounts that take commissions or offer face-to-face meetings with children, which goes against the law and Meta’s policies. The company’s zero-tolerance policy and preventive tools target nudity and sexual violence against children, and it works with law enforcement to combat child exploitation. Between 2020 and 2022, Meta shut down 27 abusive networks and disabled over 490,000 accounts to uphold child safety guidelines.
