Meta and WhatsApp to hand over data on those behind child sexual abuse accounts →

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After a week of urgent litigation, the Johannesburg high court has ordered Meta, owner of Instagram, and WhatsApp LLC, to hand over — “to the extent available” — the names, addresses, phone numbers and IP addresses of the people behind the profiles and WhatsApp channels posting graphic child sexual abuse images.  

The court also ordered Meta and WhatsApp to remove 12 WhatsApp channels and 58 Instagram accounts, insofar as it was technically feasible, and for two years, whenever similar content is reported to them, they must take action within 48 hours.  

In court on Friday, counsel for the DLC Ben Winks quoted Nelson Mandela, whose birthday it was on that day: “Our children are our greatest treasure, those that abuse them tear at the fabric of society”. Those are the tenets that all the parties could agree on.