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German Government Now Exporting Anti-Porn Surveillance Tool
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| 14th February 2024
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| See article from xbiz.com |
A moral campaigner who has been waging a one-man War on Porn in Germany, and who developed an AI tool that scans online content to identify porn images, has now exported that technology for use by a Belgian media censor. Tobias Schmid, director of the
State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, announced the tool after supervising its development himself. He named it KIVI, a word play referencing surveillance. A spokeswoman for the State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia confirmed
to NetzPolitik that there were exploratory talks taking place regarding expanding the use of KIVI across Europe. Last week, it was confirmed that Belgium's Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA) is also automatically searching the Internet, looking for
freely accessible pornography, among other things. KIVI was developed for Schmid by Berlin-based Condat AG and is currently being used by all 14 state media authorities in Germany. In addition to pornography, KIVI is also trained to detect categories
like extremism, hate speech, swastikas or the glorification of drugs. Belgium's CSA is now scanning X.com for adult content, Meineck reported, noting, From September to December 2023, around 5,000 suspicious activity reports were collected. Examiners
viewed around a fifth of it, and around 90% of this content was 'clearly' pornographic, and thus should not be accessible without strict age controls. |
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Italy decides to censor social media influencers as if they were publishers
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| 16th January 2024
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| See article from reclaimthenet.org
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In an attempt to restrict the freedoms and rights of social media influencers, the Italian Regulatory Authority of Telecommunications (AGCOM) has announced that people with a following exceeding 1,000,000 will now be legally considered as producers of
audio-visual content within the law, placing them on the same legal footing as publishers. This drastic change was revealed in the aftermath of an investigation conducted into Chiara Ferragni , a notable adversary of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and
Italy's most prominent social media influencer, regarding alleged fraudulent activities tied to a holiday cake charity event. Currently, influencers within Europe implementing influencer-marketing strategies are perceived not as media organizations
but as sellers or traders. However, AGCOM intends to widen this viewpoint, likening these influencers to TV, marketing agencies, and publishers, thereby imposing greater responsibility for all kinds of content they produce. This new classification
increases the legal and reputational hazards influencers face when publishing material. Under the new regulations, influencers are compelled to clearly distinguish sponsored content and ads, with penalties reaching up to a quarter-million euros for
non-compliance. Violations concerning child protection could warrant penalties exceeding half a million euros. Even non-commercial content produced by influencers must adhere to anti-discrimination regulations and uphold various standards currently
imposed on traditional media creators, such as abstention from disseminating misinformation, hate speech, or promotion of harmful behavior like excessive alcohol consumption. |
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Irish internet censor announces list of websites subject to censorship
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| 11th January 2024
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| See article from irishexaminer.com |
The Irish internet censor, Coimisiún na Meán, has published the list of 10 'video-sharing platform services', that will be subject to censorship under the new Online Safety Code. Instagram, Reddit, Facebook, and X, formerly Twitter, are among the
websites that will be subject to its new Online Safety Code. Alongside these sites, the designated platforms also include YouTube, Udemy, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Tumblr. In an explanatory document explaining the code, the regulator said:
Content which is intended to incite violence or hatred is covered by the draft code (as it is illegal content which is harmful to the general public). Platforms will be obliged to prohibit the uploading or sharing of
this content. Platforms will also have to provide effective media literacy measures and tools for users. These tools can help users to recognise misinformation and disinformation.
Last week, the Irish Examiner revealed people may soon
be required to upload their passport details or a selfie to certain websites if they want to view pornography. The provisions, which Coimisiún na Meán said would apply to platforms with their European headquarters based in Ireland, are contained in this
code which remains out to public consultation until the end of the month. |
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Spain announces a plan to required age/identity verification for online porn viewers
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| 16th December 2023
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| See article from avn.com
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The government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez intends to implement age verification to access adult content on the internet across the board to prevent minors from viewing age-restricted websites. Spain's data regulator Agencia Española de
Protección de Datos (AEPD) is developing a process to require web users to utilize a digital ID card. The Royal Spanish Mint will be directed to develop the digital ID technology following recommendations from the AEPD. One format floated by the
agency is that a user will download an app on their mobile device, a QR code, or some other type of digital document verifying their age through a government ID, health or residence cards, a driver's license, or a passport. AEPD claims that this approach
minimizes risks of a data breach since third parties--such as a private sector age verification software vendor or a regulated platform--will not be able to access a user's sensitive personally identifiable information. Unfortunately, there is no
guarantee of sensitive personally identifiable information being safe in the hands of a government agency or private company. Consider a case that occurred in Louisiana, which was the first U.S. state to require an ID to view adult content. Seeking to
comply with the law, the tube site Pornhub adopted an age verification solution that integrated with the state's digital identification app, LA Wallet. Months after the deployment of LA Wallet by Pornhub, the company and the agency administering
the digital wallet program were victims of a data breach. A local news report indicates that over 6 million records from the Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles were exposed by hackers in June 2023. Names, addresses, ID numbers, social security numbers,
height, weight and eye colors were exposed in a breach of a file transfer protocol. Even with the best intention and risk mitigation, AEPD will not be able to completely prevent a breach of data. That is one major concern among critics of age
verification. |
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