Today (13th March 2024), StopNCII.org has announced some exciting new developments as part of an event SWGfL and NCMEC (National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children) are hosting at the Microsoft Offices in New York, discussing with various industry representatives about the important work StopNCII.org and Take It Down achieve in the ongoing prevention of non-consensual intimate image abuse.
As part of this event, we are delighted to announce that Niantic, real-world AR company and developer of Pokémon GO has joined StopNCII.org as a new industry partner joining Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Bumble Inc, Reddit, OnlyFans, Aylo, Threads and Snap Inc. as industry platforms able to receive hashes from StopNCII.org.
We are also pleased to announce that StopNCII.org will integrate an updated version of Microsoft's PhotoDNA technology into our platform allowing for wider implementation and potential for more industry platforms to join the initiative.
PhotoDNA
Developed in partnership between Microsoft and Dartmouth University in 2009, PhotoDNA has been broadly adopted across the technology ecosystem and has long been used to help detect and enable the removal of known child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from online platforms. Much like the hashing technology that StopNCII.org already uses (PDQ), PhotoDNA is an additional process that enables identified harmful images to be hashed into a digital fingerprint, which then can be shared with industry platforms to identify and remove any non-consensual intimate image abuse material.
Complementing the already established process of StopNCII.org, this updated version of the technology enables PhotoDNA hashes to be created by the person reporting the content, ensuring that images never leave the user’s device, protecting user privacy and stopping the content from being shared any further. With many major industry platforms already using PhotoDNA technology to detect CSAM, this will allow more platforms to join the StopNCII.org initiative and further the reach of the essential support it provides.
David Wright (CEO of SWGfL) said:
''We have always strived to work alongside technology in the ongoing fight to protect individuals from intimate image abuse. With the addition of PhotoDNA, StopNCII.org can be used by more industry platforms throughout the world to protect their users when they go online. It will allow more people to take preventative action against perpetrators of intimate image abuse and can further instill that this behaviour is never acceptable. We once again thank all our industry partners for their ongoing work in this field and welcome Niantic as our latest platform to join the initiative.''
“PhotoDNA has assisted in the detection, disruption, and reporting of millions of child exploitation images around the world,” said Courtney Gregoire, Chief Digital Safety Officer at Microsoft. “By making this updated version of PhotoDNA available to StopNCII.org, we are pleased to extend this resource to empower people to control their own intimate content and combat the dissemination of non-consensual intimate imagery online.”
StopNCII.org
StopNCII.org empowers users to take control of their intimate content by using on-device hashing technology. This ground-breaking process creates a hash (digital fingerprint) of images or videos (presented as a string of letters and numbers) that can be created straight from the user’s own device. This added layer of privacy ensures the original image or video never leaves the user’s device.
The hash is then sent to participating platforms and if a subsequent image or video gets uploaded and matches the corresponding hash, it will be sent for moderation and removed if it meets the policy requirements of a platform. The image (or video) will then be blocked from any further sharing across participating platforms.
As with all hashing databases, this newly created directory increases in efficacy as more platforms join the StopNCII.org initiative. StopNCII.org has an open invitation for industry platforms who allow users to upload content to make use of the tool’s groundbreaking technology, by joining as an industry partner. With this collective effort, it will work towards making the internet a safer place.
