Not a good look for Mastodon - what can be done to automate the removal of CSAM?

  • @sugar_in_your_tea
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    -111 months ago

    Hey, just because someone has a stupid take on one subject doesn’t mean they have a stupid take on all subjects. Attack the argument, not the person.

    • @[email protected]
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      111 months ago

      Some confused arguments reveal confused people. Some terrible arguments reveal terrible people. For example: I don’t give two fucks what Nazis think. Life’s too short to wonder which subjects they’re not facile bastards about.

      If someone’s motivation for making certain JPEGs hyper-illegal is “they’re icky” - they’ve lost benefit of the doubt. Because of their decisions, I no longer grant them that courtesy.

      Demanding pointless censorship earns my dislike.

      Equating art with violence earns my distrust.

      • @sugar_in_your_tea
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        111 months ago

        Perhaps. But pretty much everyone has a stupid take on something.

        There’s obviously a limit there, but most people can be reasoned with. So instead of jumping to a conclusion, attempt a dialogue first until they prove that they can’t be reasoned with. This is especially true on SM where, even if you can’t convince the person you’re talking with, you may just convince the next person to come along.

        • @[email protected]
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          011 months ago

          Telling someone why they’re a stupid bastard for the sake of other people is not exactly a contradiction. You know what doesn’t do observers any good? “Debating” complete garbage, in a way that lends it respect and legitimacy. Sometimes you just need to call bullshit.

          Some bullshit is so blatant that it’s a black mark against the bullshitter.

          • @sugar_in_your_tea
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            111 months ago

            Sure, and I don’t think that’s the case here. If someone is literally arguing that a certain race should be exterminated that’s one thing (report, down vote, block, and move on), but someone arguing that lolicon is just as bad as CP is something completely different entirely.

            I’m just arguing that it’s generally better to have the conversation than to completely shut them out. I really hate cancel culture, so I will always call out anything that seems similar. I believe in letting people explain themselves, to an extent, and my limit is if they’re actively promoting real harm to actual people (e.g. encouraging violence against some group).

            • @[email protected]
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              111 months ago

              Someone arguing child rape is only as bad as drawing Bart Simpson naked is some kind of fucked up.

              As other subthreads should thoroughly demonstrate - I don’t have to respect someone, to call them out. A position you recently endorsed. The end of polite and civil discussion between equals doesn’t mean the yelling has stopped.

              • @sugar_in_your_tea
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                111 months ago

                I’m not saying you shouldn’t call them out, in fact I’m 100% in favor of calling out BS. What I’m saying is to not shut down the conversation if the other side is willing to explain themselves or open to learning more.

                One thing I absolutely loved about Reddit was joining communities where I was a minority and having a good faith discussion with someone I wasn’t ideologically aligned with. A lot of times I got completely shut down, but sometimes I had really good discussions and better understood the other side’s perspective.

                So all I’m saying is you (and everyone here honestly) should seek to enable that kind of discussion instead of just stopping at the first sign of disagreement. Someone saying lolicon is as harmful as CP is probably just misinformed.

                The end of polite and civil discussion

                I have yet to see that, because I make a solid effort to have polite and civil discussion and I usually get it reciprocated.

                If you’re aggressive, you’ll get aggressiveness back, but if you’re inquisitive and polite, you’ll likely get the same in return. Some people can’t be reasoned with, but I have found that many are open to hearing other perspectives, provided I go out of my way to be polite.

                • @[email protected]
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                  011 months ago

                  The guy here saying CSAM and drawings are the same keeps insisting he’s not saying that and then immediately saying it again. I’m still here calling him a stupid bastard. As often as he needs to hear it. Again: if you’re worried about the thread stopping, I am not your concern. But I’m not about to give dolts like that some undue fair shake, after the fifth time they sneer “reading comprehension!” in response to rubbing their nose in the inescapable meaning of the words they keep saying.

                  Sometimes you get assholes no matter what you say.

                  That’s not why I value blunt honesty, in some contexts, but it’s a counter to the most common criticism of blunt honesty. Bending over backwards to appease unreasonable people is worse to do and worse to read than someone barging in to accurately and lucidly call bullshit.

                  • @sugar_in_your_tea
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                    111 months ago

                    I’m responding to this comment you made earlier ITT, emphasis mine:

                    If you don’t think images of actual child abuse, against actual children, is infinitely worse than some ink on paper, I don’t care about your opinion of anything.

                    It’s quite an extreme position to me to completely shut someone out because they hold a relatively popular opinion (e.g. lolicon and CP are treated under the same federal statute in the US). You constructed a strawman (they didn’t say they were equivalent), and then you jumped to saying you don’t care about their opinion about anything because of it. That’s ridiculous and unnecessarily inflammatory.

                    I’m not saying you should try to appease everyone, just that you should consider toning things down a bit and inquire instead of accuse. If we want a polite and civil discourse, everyone needs to make an effort. I certainly try, and I respectfully ask that you do the same.

    • @[email protected]
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      11 months ago

      He invented the stupid take he’s fighting against. Nobody equated “ink on paper” with “actual rape against children”.

      The bar to cross to be filtered out of the federation isn’t rape. Lolicon is already above the threshold, it’s embarrassing that he doesn’t realize that.

      • @sugar_in_your_tea
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        111 months ago

        I don’t think the OP ever said the bar was rape, the OP said the article and the person they responded to are treating drawn depictions of imaginary children the same as depictions of actual children. Those are not the same thing at all, yet many people seem to combine them (apparently including US law as of the Protect Act of 2003).

        Some areas make a distinction (e.g. Japan and Germany), whereas others don’t. Regardless of the legal status in your area, the two should be treated separately, even if that means both are banned.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 months ago

          “treating them the same” => The threshold for being refused entry into mainstream instances is just already crossed at the lolicon level.

          From the perspective of the fediverse, pictures of child rape and lolicon should just both get you thrown out. That doesn’t mean you’re “treating them the same”. You’re just a social network. There’s nothing you can do above defederating.

          • @sugar_in_your_tea
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            211 months ago

            No, more like “treating them the same” => how the data is reported in the study. Whether they’re both against the TOS of the instance you’re on is a separate issue entirely, the problem is the data doesn’t separate the two categories.

            Look elsewhere ITT about that exact perspective. Even the US law (Protect Act of 2003) treats them largely the same (i.e. in the same sentence), and includes other taboo topics like bestiality, even if no actual animals are involved.

            It’s completely fine for neither to be allowed on a social network, what isn’t okay is for research to conflate the two. An instance inconsistently removing lolicon is a very different thing from an instance inconsistently removing actual CP, yet the article combines the two, likely to make it seem like a much worse problem than it is.

            • @[email protected]
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              111 months ago

              That’s an arbitrary decision to make and doesn’t really need to be debated

              The study is pretty transparent about what “CSAM” is under their definition and they even provide pictures, from a science communication point of view they’re in the clear

              • @sugar_in_your_tea
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                111 months ago

                And their definition kind of sucks. They’re basically saying it’s anything that SafeSearch or PhotoDNA flags, or something that has hashtag hits.

                That said, there’s absolutely some terrible things on Mastodon, including grooming and trading. I’m interested to know what the numbers look like for lolicon and similar vs actual CP, which would give me a much better understanding of how bad the problem is. As in, are the things included in the report outliers, or typical of their sample set?

                I guess I’m looking for a bit more granularity in the report.

      • @[email protected]
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        -111 months ago

        We’re not just talking about ‘ew gross icky’ exclusion from a social network. We’re talking about images whose possession is a felony. Images that are unambiguously the product of child rape.

        This paper treats them the same. You’re defending that false equivalence. You need to stop.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 months ago

          Who places the bar for “exclusion from a social network” at felonies? Any kind child porn has no place on the fediverse, simulated or otherwise. That doesn’t mean they’re equal offenses, you’re just not responsible for carrying out anything other than cleaning out your porch.

          • @[email protected]
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            011 months ago

            We’re not JUST talking about exclusion from a social network.

            Do you speak English?

            The subject matter is the part that’s a felony - so the glib inclusion of the part you just don’t like is dangerous misinformation.

            I am calling out how this study falsely equates child rape and gross drawings, and your neverending hot take is ‘well I don’t care for either.’ There’s not enough ‘who asked’ in the world. One of these things is tacitly legal and has sites listed on Google. One of these things means you die in prison, anywhere in the world.

            And here you are, still calling both of them “child porn.” In the same post insisting you’re not equating them. Thanks for keeping this simple, I guess.

            • @[email protected]
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              11 months ago

              They’re studying the prevalence of CSAM under the definition of the country they’re in. It’d be arbitrary to separate the two and make two different conclusions.

              Also you seriously need to take a chill pill

              • @[email protected]
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                11 months ago

                No possible definition of child sexual abuse can include drawings.

                Tell me otherwise in the same breath as insisting you’re not making that false equivalence. Apparently my patience is limitless when the lie is that fucking obvious.

                edit: Hang on, the obvious lie disguised a stupid lie. What country do you think Stanford is in? Drawing Bart Simpson’s dick is not illegal in America. You could do it right now, in MS Paint, and e-mail it to the FBI, and they’d just formally tell you to go fuck yourself. Which would obviously not be the case with ACTUAL “child sexual abuse materials,” being evidence of abusing a flesh-and-blood child.

                • @[email protected]
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                  11 months ago

                  https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1466A

                  (a) In General.—Any person who, in a circumstance described in subsection (d), knowingly produces, distributes, receives, or possesses with intent to distribute, a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting, that— (1) (A) depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; and (B) is obscene; or (2) (A) depicts an image that is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in graphic bestiality, sadistic or masochistic abuse, or sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex; and (B) lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value; or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be subject to the penalties provided in section 2252A(b)(1), including the penalties provided for cases involving a prior conviction.

                  • @[email protected]
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                    011 months ago

                    No possible definition of child sexual abuse can include drawings, no matter who writes it. That’s not what those words mean.

                    Drawings… aren’t children. It is literally that simple.

                    And if you think any of this is identically illegal to actual photos of child abuse - one, there’s a whole network of shamelessly public US-hosted sites for you to turn in and be a national hero, and two, you might be wholly incapable of remembering what you’re arguing. Whether you think these things are equivalent oscillates between letters.