Lemmyshitpost community closed until further notice
Hello everyone,
We unfortunately have to close the !lemmyshitpost community for the time being. We have been fighting the CSAM (Child Sexual Assault Material) posts all day but there is nothing we can do because they will just post from another instance since we changed our registration policy.
We keep working on a solution, we have a few things in the works but that won't help us now.
Thank you for your understanding and apologies to our users, moderators and admins of other instances who had to deal with this.
Edit: @Striker@lemmy.world the moderator of the affected community made a post apologizing for what happened. But this could not be stopped even with 10 moderators. And if it wasn't his community it would have been another one. And it is clear this could happen on any instance.
But we will not give up. We are lucky to have a very dedicated team and we can hopefully make an announcement about what's next very soon.
Edit 2: removed that bit about the moderator tools. That came out a bit harsher than how we meant it. It's been a long day and having to deal with this kind of stuff got some of us a bit salty to say the least. Remember we also had to deal with people posting scat not too long ago so this isn't the first time we felt helpless. Anyway, I hope we can announce something more positive soon.
They aren't asking devs to be admins or for admins to be devs. They specifically called out the developers because code exists to filter child sexual abuse material, disseminated by organizations such as the FBI and law enforcement, which can be implemented for image uploading.
NOBODY in this comment section is advocating for uploading fucking child sexual abuse material. That is a strawman you are setting up. Nobody is advocating for allowing the uploading of child sexual abuse material, or for the "material to be up on lemmy instances". NOBODY is suggesting that a single instance going down is "the world is ending". NOBODY is asking for "100's of mods to specifically address this one user's posting of CSAM".
You're setting up a strawman argument nobody is proposing. The criticism is that, at this moment, the developers of Lemmy have not implemented a method for automatically vetting uploaded images for CSAM without requiring "100's of mods", which is what resulted in the condition that "taking the community down is the only option here".
Perhaps the wording of the original post was not precise and accurate enough for your full and complete understanding of the intent and meaning behind it. In this post, I have attempted to elucidate that intent and meaning to a degree which I hope is understandable to you.
Yeah? I doubt this is true but I could be wrong. You make it sound like preventing CSAM is as simple as importing a library, something I find dubious. Companies have been trying to filter out this material in an automated fashion for decades and yet they still have to employ humans to do it manually because automated means donāt really work. This is why companies like Reddit, facebook have trust and safety teams to do this work.
Edit: I goggled and could not find this database. Iām thinking itās a myth.
ahem there were users who uploaded CSAM. Those are the users who were advocating for uploading CSAM, becuase they uploaded CSAM.
Iām literally arguing with people who are saying that they shouldnāt have shut down the community because itās big and that shutting down the community (not CSAM) poses an threat to the fediverse. Maybe, but CSAM poses a legal threat, which is much greater than the threat of low engagement.
Yeah, that doesnāt exist, as Iāve mentioned previously. You make it sound like getting CSAM off lemmy was as simple as writing some code - if it were, why doesnāt facebook and reddit do this?
Youāre not understanding how CSAM detection works or is handled.
The grim reality is this: cameras exist, children exist, adults exist, the internet exists, and the second that a crime is committed, it is not added to an FBI database. If such as FBI database existed and IF it was useful (and not just a database of hashes for bit-perfect copies of CSAM) and IF it were updated when evidence of the crime surfaces.. IF all of those things are true, THEN it means thereās still likely a huge swath of CSAM material still out there, that could be posted at any time, and that would NOT be detected.
Again ask yourself, IF such a database existed, then WHY does reddit, twitter, facebook, hell, why doesnāt every or any site use it?
Pedophiles, instead of downvoting me, why not explain yourself?
As another commenter posted below:
As far as I am aware, every major site does use it in addition to manual vetting for any flagged "borderline" or "uncertain" results caught up in the filter.
Db0 even created a tool for Lemmy:
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/2896209
I think this is where you could be wrong here. I appreciate the links, Iāll look into those in more detail. My best understanding is that these tools generate so many false-positives and false-negatives that itās not worth using them. It may be a first line of defense until real humans get to see them, but my point is that humans are still needed. When humans are included because the system isnāt 100%, it means humans do the labor and as such, with limited time, humans need to determine when they can do the labor - sometimes shutting down a community is the best way to stop the flood while they clean up the mess.
This is just a matter of confirmation bias from your side now. You stubbornly refuse to accept factual information very helpfully delivered to you by users who have many better things to do than respond to your inquiries, and you dogmatically refuse to acknowledge that there are advanced and reliable automation tools available for the use case in question. And while you do all that, you belittle the other users in the community by referring to your supposedly superior knowledge and experience, however somehow failing to provide any data or secondary sources to back up your claims.
Hello Richard, thanks for taking the time to present your criticism. I take some issue with it, but I believe itās due to a misunderstanding. Iāll explain.
I do think there is some confirmation bias at play here but Iām thinking you may be surprised where itās coming from.
This factual information, to the best as I can understand from reading the comments is that these tools exist. I donāt deny that they exist. I didnāt deny they exist.
Unfortunately, it would seem you are wrong here, as they have responded to my inquiries. Or, are you talking about the people who havenāt responded to my inquiries? Either way, I agree that there are people who have or havenāt responded to my inquiries that do have better things to do. What is also true is that the people who responded to my inquiries, even if they had better things to do, still responded to my inquires.
But, I didnāt, is the thing. In the cases where people have provided links to projects, Iāve thanked them. Iāve mentioned my skepticism and Iāve also wished them well on their projects.
āAdvanced and reliableā are marketing terms, and I donāt really care to use them as they have no meaning. Advanced how? In that it uses neural networks? NEAT! reliable how? in that they work 100% of the time? That they donāt generate false-positives or false-negatives? That they donāt degrade the user experience? These are questions worth asking.. but.. let me be clear: they are questions worth asking for the sake of improving these tools and maintaining the user experience; these are not meant to discourage use of such tools. I believe admins should use all tools available to them, including turning the servers off if they need to - in that toolbelt includes ai based tools and scripts.
Richard, is it, or can I call you dick?
Either way, Richard, I donāt claim to have superior knowledge. I honestly thought that would come across in my username. Sorry that it did not. Iām a dipshit.
Like, an actual dipshit. Iām dumber than a lot of people on here. That doesnāt mean that Iām the dumbest, but it doesnāt mean Iām the smartest either. Iām far from being the smartest on this site, and thatās not impostor syndrome. If I sound smart itās just because I do know a bit on some topics relating to technology and development, and because I have many interests in many topics. What I have at best is a baseline understanding, and I try to remain humble about it. I got pretty emotional in this thread, calling people who disagreed with my very much hard-to-disagree-with stances that āCSAM badā and āadmins should feel free using all tools available to remove and prevent CSAMā names that got me a 3-day ban. A ban which is now ending, allowing me to finally respond to you.
You see the problem here is that the people Iāve been responding to are people who are misunderstanding some things, which Iām trying to clear up. I believe this is one of the main draw to any message board system, for most people. We like to communicate and share knowledge.
I donāt walk around with sources handy for everything I say, ready to cite them in every single post. I also donāt see many people doing this. I donāt lie, and Iām happy to provide links, sources, whatever - when asked for them. No oneās asked for sources for my claims that āCSAM badā or that āadmins should feel free using all the tools available to them..ā or even when I say that AI tools arenāt perfect and lead to false-positives and false-negatives. But, I can give them to you if you want to see them. I donāt talk out my ass. One easy example Iāve been giving people is whatās happening and has been happening for years to this one youtuber, who constantly gets her videos flagged as having a child in them, despite her being 30 and only having herself in her videos. Her experience is valid, as there are some people who will constantly be falsely identified (which again is just stating facts, not suggesting these tools shouldnāt be used - that would suggest that these tools cannot be improved, which they can and are).
Richard, your comment was a slam-dunk. Iām just not sure you hit the right net. Please let me know if I am misunderstanding anything.
Yours, Dipshit.