Former Employee Raises Concerns
David Erb, a former engineering director at Meta, resigned in 2019 to protest the encryption initiative. Erb expressed his worries to Meta’s management, specifically highlighting the potential for shielding predators who target children through encrypted direct messages on Facebook.
Potential Risks
Critics fear that encrypted direct messaging could enable potential pedophiles to locate and contact children through Facebook’s “People You May Know” feature, which recommends possible friends based on an individual’s social connections.
“It was a hundred times worse than any of us expected,” Erb revealed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
The Case of Karl Quitter
In May 2020, Karl Quitter, using the alias “Mathew Jones,” exploited Facebook to solicit explicit photos and videos from at least nine teenage girls in the Philippines. He lured them by promising financial assistance to their families for food and medicine.
Facebook investigators identified Quitter’s messages and reported them to authorities, ultimately resulting in Quitter pleading guilty to sexually exploiting children in federal court.
Encryption and Child Predator Detection
Critics argue that encrypting direct messages will complicate efforts to catch online child predators. Brian Fitzgerald, head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Chicago office, cautioned against allowing strangers to communicate with minors through encrypted channels from their initial contact.
Meta’s Response to Criticism
In response to Erb’s claims, a spokesperson for Meta stated that the company has long been committed to child safety efforts. Meta has implemented measures to restrict recommendations for potentially suspicious adults and has supported updates to reporting statutes to cover grooming situations.
Tragic Sextortion Cases
In March 2022, Jordan DeMay, a 17-year-old from Michigan, tragically died by suicide after falling victim to a “sextortion” plot orchestrated by Nigerian men on Instagram. These individuals solicited explicit photos and threatened to expose them to DeMay’s friends unless he paid a sum of money.
The account of a hacked woman was used in the plot to target young men, including DeMay, for explicit images. Access to the messages played a crucial role in understanding the events leading to DeMay’s death.
Meta’s Safety Measures
Meta claims to have developed robust safety measures on Facebook and Instagram to combat abuse and unlawful activities. The company also provides encryption-resilient tools to keep teens safe and encourages reporting suspicious instances to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Meta’s spokesperson denied allegations that the company refused to create exceptions to full encryption due to the potential workload in dealing with red flags. They emphasized Meta’s commitment to ongoing investments in safety measures and cooperation with authorities.
While Meta is the parent company of WhatsApp, a popular encrypted messaging app, WhatsApp users primarily communicate with people they know, unlike Facebook and Instagram, which facilitate connections between strangers.
YouTube, owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc, disabled private messaging in 2019 to prioritize improving public conversations.