07/08/2025

THURSDAY | AUG 7, 2025

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Social media firms turning blind eye to sex abuse clips

WhatsApp working to thwart scammers SAN FRANCISCO: Meta on Tuesday said it shut nearly seven million WhatsApp accounts linked to scammers in the first half of this year and is ramping up safeguards against such schemes. “Our team identified the accounts and disabled them before the criminal organisations that created them could use them,” WhatsApp External Affairs Director Clair Deevy said. Often run by organised gangs, the scams range from bogus cryptocurrency investments to get-rich-quick pyramid schemes, WhatsApp executives said in a briefing. “There is always a catch and it should be a red flag for everyone: you have to pay upfront to get promised returns or earnings,” Meta-owned WhatsApp said in a blog post. WhatsApp detected and banned more than 6.8 million accounts linked to scam centres, most of them in Southeast Asia, according to Meta. WhatsApp and Meta worked with OpenAI to disrupt a scam traced to Cambodia that used ChatGPT to generate text messages containing a link to a WhatsApp chat to hook victims, according to the tech firms. Meta on Tuesday began prompting WhatsApp users to be wary when added to unfamiliar chat groups. New “safety overviews” provide information about the group and tips on spotting scams, along with the option of making a quick exit. “We’ve all been there: someone you don’t know attempting to message you, or add you to a group chat, promising low-risk investment opportunities or easy money, or saying you have an unpaid bill that’s overdue,” Meta said. “The reality is, these are often scammers trying to prey on people’s kindness, trust and willingness to help – or, their fears that they could be in trouble if they don’t send money fast.” – AFP Czech driverless train hits open track KOPIDLNO (Czech Republic): A rail line linking two northern Czech towns is testing Europe’s first driverless train operating in an open environment. The train named Edita has been running since April on a local railway used as a testing track by the Prague-based private AZD company producing transport control and signalling systems. “The train runs autonomously, it is equipped with systems that enable us to control its traction, brakes, and speed,” said AZD’s railway developer Michal Novak. “It is also equipped with a device that detects objects and recognises ... obstacles and reacts accordingly.” AZD has been running the train sparingly since its launch as its staff often test new equipment on it. Edita connects two small towns on a 24km track that was abandoned in 2010 before AZD bought it six years later. AZD has invested 320 million Czech koruna (RM63.47 million) in the project, using EU funding for about one-third of the amount. The autonomous train, which has driven some 1,700km with passengers, relies on cameras, lasers, satellite navigation and an integrated digital map. Under the current legislation, it still needs a driver to at least supervise its operation. On Tuesday, the train’s crew also included a conductor and experts checking data. When a hare ran onto the track, Edita duly slowed down and informed the crew. Novak said Edita was the first driverless train in Europe in an open environment with level crossings and where animals might get in the way. “There are systems where autonomous vehicles operate, but these are mostly on special tracks that are closed off.” – AFP

SYDNEY: Australia’s internet watchdog said social media firms are still “turning a blind eye” to child sex abuse material on their platforms and said YouTube in particular had been unresponsive to its enquiries. The eSafety Commissioner said in a report YouTube, along with Apple, failed to track the number of user reports it received of child sex abuse appearing on their platforms and also could not say how long it took them to respond to such reports. The Australian government decided last week to include YouTube in its social media ban for teenagers, following eSafety’s advice to overturn its planned exemption for the Alphabet-owned Google’s video-sharing site. “When left to their own, these companies aren’t prioritising the protection of children and are seemingly turning a blind eye to o Australian regulator finds safety gaps in platforms

a “range of safety deficiencies on their services which increases the risk that child sexual exploitation and abuse material and activity appear on the services”. Safety gaps included failures to detect and prevent livestreaming of the material or block links to known child abuse material, as well as inadequate reporting mechanisms. It said platforms were also not using “hash matching” technology on all parts of their services to identify images of child sexual abuse by checking them against a database. Google has said before that its anti-abuse measures include hash-matching technology and artificial intelligence. The regulator said some providers had not made improvements to address these safety gaps on their services despite it putting them on notice in previous years. “In the case of Apple services and Google’s YouTube, they didn’t even answer questions about how many user reports they received about child sexual abuse or details of how many trust and safety personnel Apple and Google have,” Inman Grant said. – Reuters

crimes occurring on their services,” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said. “No other consumer-facing industry would be given the licence to operate by enabling such heinous crimes against children on their premises, or services.” A Google spokesperson said “eSafety’s comments are rooted in reporting metrics, not online safety performance”, adding that YouTube’s systems proactively removed over 99% of all abuse content before being flagged or viewed. “Our focus remains on outcomes and detecting and removing (child sexual exploitation and abuse) on YouTube,” the spokesperson said in a statement. Meta – owner of Facebook, Instagram and Threads – has said it prohibits graphic videos. The eSafety Commissioner, an office set up to protect internet users, has mandated Apple, Discord, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Skype, Snap and WhatsApp to report on the measures they take to address child exploitation and abuse material in Australia. The report on their responses so far found

SEE AND SNIFF ... Czech visitors flock to view the world’s smelliest flower, a blooming titan arum, also known as the corpse flower, which has blossomed for the first time in four years, at the University of Warsaw Botanic Garden in Poland on Tuesday. – REUTERSPIC

Wife of ousted president Yoon says sorry SEOUL: South Korea’s former first lady Kim Keon Hee apologised yesterday as she appeared for questioning by investigators on corruption charges that plagued her husband’s term before it ended abruptly, calling herself “a nobody”. broker. The charges are punishable by years in prison. Before Yoon’s election in 2022 and under intense political pressure even from his own party, Kim stood before cameras to apologise for falsifying her academic records and promised to behave as a responsible spouse of a national leader.

Kim and ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol are under separate investigations by special prosecutors appointed after he was impeached and then removed from office for briefly declaring martial law. Kim has been the subject of high-profile scandals, some dating back more than 15 years, which overshadowed Yoon’s turbulent presidency and inflicted political damage on him and his conservative party. “I am truly sorry that a nobody like myself has caused concern for everyone in the country,” Kim said as she entered the office of the special prosecutor. She did not answer reporters’ questions about the charges against her. Kim faces a long list of charges including stock fraud, bribery and illegal influence peddling that have implicated big business owners, religious figures and a political power

Allegations of wrongdoing did not fade as Yoon narrowly won the presidency and served a tumultuous term marred by a bitter row with the main opposition party which had control of parliament and kept up pressure on the first family to come clean on Kim’s scandals. When hidden camera footage that appeared to show Kim accepting a Christian Dior bag as a gift, Yoon refused to say it may have been illegal or inappropriate. After a review, the state prosecutors’ office decided not to charge her. Since Yoon’s ouster and with the appointment of special prosecutors, the probe against Kim intensified, reopening a case of stock fraud dating back to 2009 which had been previously closed by state prosecutors for insufficient cause. – Reuters

Kim arriving at the special prosecutor’s office in Seoul yesterday. – REUTERSPIC