High Court's urgent order to Meta: Shut down child pornography accounts

While the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, on Monday evening ordered Meta to shut down several anonymous Instagram accounts and WhatsApp channels which are distributing explicit child pornography depicting South African school children, this had not yet been done by Tuesday afternoon.

Judge Mudunwazi Makamu also ruled that Meta had to, before noon Tuesday, furnish The Digital Law Company (DLC) with all information in its possession pertaining to the creator(s) of the WhatsApp channels and Instagram profiles listed in the urgent application.

Rorke Wilson of the DLC on Tuesday said as the matter was heard on Monday evening, the deadline for Meta to shut down the accounts and channels was set to be midnight on Monday.

“However, Meta has not complied with any of the demands and all the deadlines have passed,” Wilson said, adding that they are now contemplating next steps.

The DLC turned to court on an extremely urgent basis, which was not opposed, when it became aware of the explicit content involving children on Instagram and WhatsApp.

Emma Sadleir Berkowitz, social media law expert and the founder of DLC, said in an affidavit that DLC was made aware of some social media accounts depicting shocking material relating to children on Friday.

Wilson, meanwhile, had already been dealing with complaints from victims depicted on three other platforms the day before, which related to pupils of schools in Pretoria and Centurion.

Upon investigation, the shocking nature of these posts became clear, as they involve the mass distribution of unlawful material involving children to large unidentified audiences who are members of so-called WhatsApp “community channels”, as well as Instagram profiles, Sadleir said.

“The content consists of explicit pornographic images and videos depicting children. The images and videos are often accompanied by other information relating to the individual child depicted, including their name, grade, school, as well as lewd or otherwise offensive descriptions relating to the individual’s purported behaviour,” she stated in her affidavit.

The material is sourced from the community by sharing links to an anonymous uploading service.

Sadleir said that the creator and operator of the Instagram profiles and WhatsApp channels appears to be the same person, using many aliases.

From time to time, it appears that Meta administrators will delete or block some of the pages and channels. However, not long after, the same page or channel becomes active again, or another channel crops up replicating the previous one, she explained.

These disturbing postings include graphic child pornography and allegations of children being HIV positive – all while identifying children and schools.

DLC, however, rushed to court late on Monday when a live WhatsApp channel with more than 11 000 followers threatened to publish pornographic material as well as the private information of children at 8pm on Monday.

Sadleir said a letter of demand was sent to Meta and its officials, requiring that they delete the channels and profiles, and provide DLC with information that will assist in identifying the perpetrator.

“Receipt has been acknowledged, but no meaningful action has been taken,” she said.

“At this stage, it is impossible to identify exactly which children will be affected by the anticipated upload at 8pm, but given the tenor of the message shared by the anonymous user – the harmful effects will be widespread and irreparable,” she told the court.

She also told the court that DLC has received reports that girls are being placed on suicide watch after being featured on the channels.

“If we are furnished with the information of the user behind these Instagram and WhatsApp accounts, it will enable us to take appropriate legal steps, such as obtaining a protection order or interdict against this individual,” Sadleir said.

Cape Times