‘Meta has blood on their hands’: High Court orders social media platforms to remove child pornography accounts

947’s Drive with Thando speaks with social media law specialist Emma Sadleir.

Listen below:

In a landmark ruling, the Johannesburg High Court has ordered Meta (owners of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) to shut down and permanently remove social media accounts posting graphic content of schoolchildren.

Dozens of Instagram accounts and WhatsApp channels were posting graphic child pornography and identifying individuals and their schools.

“It’s so disturbing. I’ve dealt with some horrible cases in my time… this is the worst I have ever dealt with.”

– Emma Sadleir, Social Media Law expert 

Sadleir says many parents are reluctant to have their children on social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, without realising that WhatsApp channels can be equally dangerous.

Unlike WhatsApp groups, channels have no identifiers.

“The content shared on these channels in the last few days has been so awful and totally unaccounted for.”

– Emma Sadleir, Social Media Law expert 

“I do feel that Meta has blood on their hands, it’s time these channels are shut down… Meta needs to hand over the information… anonymity is the route of all evil.”

– Emma Sadleir, Social Media Law expert 

“Parents out there must all go into your children’s WhatsApp accounts. On the bottom left, there is an icon that says Updates. That is where you can see where people are sharing their WhatsApp status… if your child is following any channels, you can see it there.”

– Emma Sadleir, Social Media Law expert 

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the discussion.