Facebook Share Price: Internet Majors Join Forces to Banish Child Abuse Images

iNVEZZ.com Friday, July 5th: Facebook Inc.(NASDAQ:FB), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), Twitter and at least three other major Internet companies are in secret talks to create a universal system to wipe out child abuse images from the Web, The Times has reported, citing unnamed industry sources.

The tech giants would join forces in creating a system that could block paedophiles from sharing child abuse photos online. The plan is to set up a single database of the “worst of the worst” images that will be maintained by Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, a Los Angeles-based charity founded by the Hollywood stars Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore.

Currently, each Internet company has its own tools for identifying and removing abusive images from its website but for legal and technical reasons the companies do not share details. With the new system, each company will upload offensive images it has found on its websites to a central database maintained by Thorn, which will be open for review by other participants in the project. This means that if Facebook, for example, finds and blocks a child abuse image on its website, other Internet companies will also be able to prevent copies of that image appearing on their sites.

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Facebook is believed to be the first to start testing the system, with Google also said to begin trailing this month.
According to the sources cited by The Times, some of the companies have signed agreements not to discuss the project in public, and that secrecy was required to allow frank discussions.
Google has confirmed its participation in the project. Facebook, when asked to comment, has responded: “We are committed to using technology as a force to protect children.”
**The Facebook share price was $24.56 as of 15.35 GMT, 05.07.2013**