Arachnid: Hunting the web’s darkest secrets

An episode from Click Here from Recorded Future News and PRX. North Korea has a secret army of workers applying for remote IT jobs around the world. They collect paychecks, sometimes steal company data, and answer to a boss who isn't at company headquarters, he's sitting in Pyongyang. We hear about one named Kyle.  Click Here podcast: therecord.media/podcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The relentless fight to hold Big Tech accountable ends up in the courts with billion dollar lawsuits against tech giants. Will the push to tackle decades of tech immunity help Paul and Sage who continue to demand justice and change to protect kids. With the rapid expansion of AI, the stakes have never been higher.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australia takes a bold step to push back on Big Tech, setting up sweeping world-first laws banning children and teenagers from social media. It sets off a high stakes battle of wills and things get very ugly for Australia's e-safety commissioner. Paul finds himself face-to-face with his abuser. And we step inside the life of a tough cop who's spent decades trying to save kids.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As they fight to clean up the internet, Sage and Paul deal with mountains of notices that indicate an epidemic of illegal content like the visual images taken during their childhood. Big Tech leaders face scrutiny in the US Senate for how they are handling one of the darkest secrets of the internet. Meantime, the Winnipeg Arachnid team and their global network partners are vigilant 24/7. They pull out all stops to save kids in real time.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lianna has spent her whole career protecting kids. Inspired by Sage and her goals to help other survivors get illegal images off the internet, Lianna and her non-profit team push boundaries and create Arachnid, the mother of all web crawlers, to hunt down CSAM images in the darkest corners of the internet. But nothing prepared the Arachnid team for the firehose of what they found and that ended up putting the tiny Canadian non-profit on the global stage to take on Big Tech. From TVO Podcasts, the Investigative Journalism Bureau, The Toronto Star, and Piz Gloria Productions, this six-part podcast series follows the survivors' long-shot fight against the most powerful companies in the world to end a massive, global trade in child sex abuse imagery. Ep 3: The Evidence Catcher Follow TVO on social:  https://www.youtube.com/theagenda https://www.instagram.com/theagendatvo/?hl=en   Join our newsletter:  https://www.tvo.org/newsletters   Visit the TVO Today website for current affairs journalism, documentaries and podcasts:  https://www.tvo.org/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leanna McDonald, director at the Canadian Center for Child Protection who leads Project Arachnid. Tim Cranston, former Microsoft legal/tech contact who coordinated early PhotoDNA work. Hany, the academic inventor of PhotoDNA. They discuss how PhotoDNA was built and deployed quickly, why known-image matching matters, the scale of the global problem, and why the job remains unfinished.

Leanna MacDonald, leader at the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, pushes for platform accountability. Dr. Michael Burke, clinical psychologist and forensic profiler, outlines research on links between image possession and hands-on offending. They discuss tech company failures, global spread of CSAM, survivors confronting platforms, and the personal fallout survivors endure.

What if the worst thing that ever happened to you plays out countless times on anonymous computer screens all over the world? Every day, tens of millions of images of child sexual abuse circulate on global online platforms. The proliferation of these images is getting worse as AI technology and deep fakes create an ever-expanding epidemic of online child sex exploitation. The children depicted in those criminal images are real. Many are now adults held hostage by these disturbing images despite available technology like Canada's Project Arachnid, which detects these images and sends out removal notices. Platforms often resist action, citing privacy laws. But in response, survivors and a group of motivated supporters are banding together across the globe to protect kids. Confronting their own trauma, they are speaking out, advocating for change internationally, and demanding stronger laws that hold tech giants to account.  From TVO Podcasts, the Investigative Journalism Bureau, The Toronto Star, and Piz Gloria Productions, this six-part podcast series follows the survivors' long-shot fight against the most powerful companies in the world to end a massive, global trade in child sex abuse imagery. Follow TVO on social:  https://www.youtube.com/theagenda https://www.instagram.com/theagendatvo/?hl=en   Check out more content on parental rights:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSxKphk71Qg   Join our newsletter:  https://www.tvo.org/newsletters   Visit the TVO Today website for current affairs journalism, documentaries and podcasts:  https://www.tvo.org/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.