Microsoft Bing suggests child porn search terms to pedophiles

Paedophiles searching for child pornography on Microsoft Bing get keyword suggestions that lead to more criminal content on the web according to a latest TechCrunch investigation coming on the heel of an earlier one that found similar issues with Facebookowned WhatsAppBings Similar Images feature can suggest additional illegal child abuse imagery to those who search for related content said the study carried out by Israeli online safety startup AntiToxin on behalf of TechCrunch on ThursdayThe study came after another TechCrunch report last month claimed that Facebookowned WhatsApp was being used by traders of child pornography to distribute disturbing content without much of a hurdleThe concerns raised in the latest study was shared with Microsoft following which the software giant said it assigned an engineering team that fixed the issuesClearly these results were unacceptable under our standards and policies and we appreciate TechCrunch making us awareWe acted immediately to remove them but we also want to prevent any other similar violations in the future Were focused on learning from this so we can make any other improvements needed Jordi Ribas Microsofts Chief Vice President of Bing and AI Products was quoted as sayingMicrosoft said it was working on blocking any similar queries as well as problematic related search suggestions and similar imagesHowever AntiToxin that is closely supervised by legal counsel found that while some search terms from its report are now banned or cleaned up others still surface illegal contentMicrosoft also claimed that it was changing its Bing flagging options to make it easier for people to report child sexual abuseSimilar searches on Google did not produce as clearly illegal imagery or as much concerning content as did Bing the research showedThe latest study was commissioned after the investigation last month revealed that in the absence of adequate human moderators child pornographic material was slipping by the automated systems of WhatsApp that offers endtoend encryption for its usersAntiToxin also found that several people from India were part of groups that circulate child pornrelated contentWhatsApp last week said it blocked and removed over 130000 such accounts to clamp down on child pornography on its platformWhatsApp has a zerotolerance policy around child sexual abuse We deploy our most advanced technology including artificial intelligence to scan profile photos and actively ban accounts suspected of sharing this vile contentWe also respond to law enforcement requests in India and around the world Sadly because both app stores and communications services are being misused to spread abusive content technology companies must work together to stop it a WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statementCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in the headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever