Facebook parent Meta on Monday launched its ‘Take It Down’ tool in India to remove intimate and non-consensual images of minors below 18 years. The tool, which is developed by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), also helps adults remove online nude, partially nude or sexually explicit photos and videos taken before they were 18.
The company will make the tool available in Hindi this year and soon in other Indian languages for users across its social media platforms.
The tool assigns a unique digital fingerprint, called a hash value, to specific images and videos. Hashing turns images or videos into a coded form that can no longer be viewed. Once the hash is generated, the company uses the coded form to find any copies or the images or videos, take them down and prevent them from being posted on the social media platforms in future.
“Keeping women and teens safe online is an industry-wide challenge. We have policies and technology in place to safeguard women and teens, we offer tools to users, like blocking, comment filters and reporting,” said Antigone Davis, vice president, global head of safety, Meta.
India is one of the biggest markets for Meta and safety features like Take It Down and StopNCII.org for stopping the spread of non-consensual intimate images; Hidden Words on Instagram to combat messages that contain offensive terms, etc, are important to strengthen the confidence of users.
While the company has been working to make its platforms safe for children and women, women and child development minister Smriti Irani asked the company to work directly with government agencies such as NIMHANS for mental health programmes. The minister also suggested Meta to work with childline 1098 to help children in emergency situations.
“The government, in collaboration with all state governments, runs a helpline 1098 which is the child helpline. But, there is absolutely no symmetry between this helpline and that helpline,” Irani said at the Digital Suraksha Summit organised by Meta.
Meta has tied up with RATI Foundation for child helpline in order to tackle safety concerns. Children in distress through cyber bullying and in other emergency can call 6363176363.
“Some kids will presume that your helpline was the helpline to call when they are in mortal danger,” Irani added.
The company has also partnered with the ministry of women and child development to launch the #AmritGeneration campaign, which will encourage young people to freely express their vision for the future.
“Meta remains committed to driving digital inclusion in India through various programs and initiatives. Today, millions of women-led businesses and teens use our apps to express their authentic selves,” said Sandhya Devanathan, vice president and head (India), Meta.
With regard to taking down misinformation and other fake content, the company said it has been sharing transparency reports regularly. “Any of these issues that violate our policies, over 90% of the content is removed before someone reports it to us,” Davis said.
