HISPI Project Cerebellum HISPI PROJECT CEREBELLUM

Instagram Algorithms Allegedly Promote Accounts Facilitating Child Sex Abuse Content

June 7, 2023

A recent investigation by The Wall Street Journal, Stanford University, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that Instagram's recommendation algorithms may inadvertently promote accounts facilitating and selling child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The study reveals these algorithms not only make such accounts discoverable through keyword searches but also actively recommend them to users within the network. This discovery is particularly troubling given Instagram's popularity among teenagers. Such incidents underscore the need for trustworthy AI, safe and secure AI practices. For those interested in shaping the future of responsible AI governance and mitigating similar harmful incidents, consider joining HISPI Project Cerebellum to Map, Measure, Govern, or Manage such issues through our TAIM platform. JOIN US

Matched TAIM controls

Suggested mapping from embedding similarity (not a formal assessment). Browse all TAIM controls

Alleged deployer
meta, instagram
Alleged developer
meta, instagram
Alleged harmed parties
children, general-public, minors, teenagers

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/583

Data source

Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).

When citing the database as a whole, please use:

McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.

Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide

We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.