The CSAM File - Part 2
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245 companies submitted reports. Five accounted for 91%. 30 of the top 50 platforms publish nothing. The gap is documented every year.
Monday covered the scale: 36,210,368 reports to NCMEC in 2023. Tuesday covers the gap. Who is reporting and who is not. Which platforms publish transparency data on child sexual exploitation measures and which do not. Where the material is hosted. And why the institutions documenting the gap are the same ones whose job it is to close it.
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NCMEC CyberTipline 2023 · 245 reporting companies · Five account for 91% · Concentration01 / 04
245 companies reported. Five of them submitted 91% of all reports. The legal obligation applies to the whole industry. The reporting does not.
In 2023, 245 companies submitted reports to the NCMEC CyberTipline. Of the 36,210,368 reports received, five companies accounted for 91%: Meta submitted 27,604,992. Google submitted 2,185,176. Omegle submitted 1,373,809 before shutting down in November 2023. Snapchat submitted 713,055. TikTok submitted 590,378. NCMEC 2023 CyberTipline Report, missingkids.org.
The remaining 240 companies accounted for the other 9% combined. Apple submitted 267. The legal requirement under 18 U.S.C. Section 2258A applies to all electronic service providers in the United States when they become aware of CSAM. The obligation is identical across the industry. The reporting volumes document a significant gap between the companies that report at scale and the majority of the industry. NCMEC 2023 CyberTipline Report, missingkids.org.
The number of electronic service providers operating at scale in the United States in 2023 is not 245. The NCMEC data does not state how many companies were legally obligated to report and did not. It states how many reported. 245 is the number. The gap between that number and the total population of platforms subject to the same legal obligation is not published as a single figure. NCMEC 2023 CyberTipline Report, missingkids.org.
Source: NCMEC, 2023 CyberTipline Report, missingkids.org
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OECD · Platform transparency · Top 50 platforms · 30 publish nothing · Silence on record02 / 04
30 of the top 50 online platforms publish no transparency reports on child sexual exploitation measures. The OECD documented which ones. The silence is on record.
The OECD assessed transparency reporting practices among the top 50 online platforms and documented that 30 of them publish no transparency reports on child sexual exploitation measures. These platforms do not publicly disclose whether they scan for CSAM, how many reports they have submitted to NCMEC or equivalent bodies, or what content moderation policies they apply to child safety material. OECD.
Transparency reporting on child sexual exploitation is not legally mandated in most jurisdictions. Where it exists, it is voluntary. The 20 platforms that do publish transparency data include some of the largest platforms. The 30 that do not are not required to by law in most markets. The OECD recorded the absence as a finding. It is documented. OECD.
The absence of a transparency report is not evidence that a platform has submitted no reports to NCMEC. A platform could be reporting to NCMEC without disclosing this publicly. The OECD finding documents the public accountability gap: 30 of the 50 largest platforms have chosen not to publish what they do or do not do on child sexual exploitation. That choice is now on record. OECD.
Source: OECD · NCMEC, 2023 CyberTipline Report, missingkids.org
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IWF Annual Report 2023 · Hosting countries · Commercial infrastructure · Removal gap03 / 04
The IWF documented where the material is hosted. The United States. The Netherlands. France. Russia. Canada. Commercial infrastructure. The same countries. Every year.
The Internet Watch Foundation's 2023 Annual Report documented that the top five countries hosting confirmed child sexual abuse material were the United States, the Netherlands, France, Russia and Canada. This is commercial hosting infrastructure: the same data centres and content delivery networks used by ordinary websites. The material is not primarily on specialised or dark web infrastructure. IWF Annual Report 2023, iwf.org.uk.
The IWF issues removal notices to hosting providers. For material hosted in the United Kingdom, the average removal time in 2023 was under two hours. For material hosted outside the United Kingdom, removal times vary. The IWF does not have jurisdiction to compel removal outside the UK. It can document and request. The hosting provider decides whether to act and when. IWF Annual Report 2023, iwf.org.uk.
The same five hosting countries appear in the IWF's data year after year. The IWF documents this because the documentation is part of the accountability mechanism. The hosting providers operate in jurisdictions with functioning legal systems. The material persists on their infrastructure. The IWF publishes the data annually. The gap between the documentation and the removal is also documented. IWF Annual Report 2023, iwf.org.uk.
Source: IWF Annual Report 2023, iwf.org.uk
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The question. Series complete.04 / 04
The gap between what is legally required and what is happening is not hidden. It is published. Every year. By the institutions whose job it is to close it.
NCMEC publishes the CyberTipline report. The IWF publishes its annual assessment. The OECD publishes its platform transparency findings. Each institution documents the gap between legal obligation and actual practice, between reported material and removed material, between platforms that disclose and platforms that do not. The gap is in the public record. It has been there every year. The question is not whether the gap exists. It is documented. The question is what it would take to close it, and why the institutions publishing the evidence of the gap are the same ones asking that question.
Source: NCMEC, 2023 CyberTipline Report, missingkids.org · IWF Annual Report 2023, iwf.org.uk · OECD
Some stories are buried on purpose. We dig.
The CSAM File · Part 2 of 2 · Series complete.The CSAM File is a two-part series. Part 1 covered the scale. Part 2 covered the gap. Sources: NCMEC, IWF, OECD. Follow UNSILENCED for two new stories every week.