Meta, which owns WhatsApp and Instagram, is due to be hauled before court on Friday to face a possible contempt of court order after it was instructed on Monday to permanently remove certain channels and profiles that are distributing graphic child pornography material and allegedly has not done so yet.

The Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, late on Monday evening ordered Meta to immediately remove six specified WhatsApp channels and 30 Instagram profiles.

This followed an extremely urgent application launched by The Digital Law Company (DLC), which also obtained an order against Meta to, by Tuesday noon, supply all information in its possession about the creator(s) of the WhatsApp channels and Instagram profiles listed in the urgent application.

Rorke Wilson of The Digital Law Company on Thursday said Meta had partially complied by removing some accounts, but somehow the content is still available to those who have followed it when they were still alive.

However, Meta has not yet provided the applicant with user information.

“Until the perpetrator(s) are identified, we are dealing with ‘whack a mole’,” Wilson said.

Emma Sadleir Berkowitz, a social media law expert and founder of DLC, stated that as soon as one account is removed, others are created almost instantly. She stated this in an affidavit filed with the court in the contempt of court application.

She said these faceless perpetrator(s) are publishing disturbing pornographic material regarding young South African schoolchildren on these platforms.

Sadleir Berkowitz said that is why it is so important to disable these accounts and to disclose who is behind them.

She added that the perpetrator is not going to stop the terror campaign on their own.

“He must be stopped and Meta is the only one who can stop him,” she said.

According to Sadleir Berkowitz, Meta is aware of Monday’s order; thus, DLC will approach the court on Friday for a contempt order if Meta has not complied by then.

She said that DLC was made aware of some social media accounts depicting shocking material relating to children. Upon investigation, the disturbing nature of these posts became clear, as they involve the mass distribution of unlawful material involving children to large, unidentified audiences who are members of so-called WhatsApp “community channels”, as well as Instagram profiles.

“The content consists of explicit pornographic images and videos depicting children. The images and videos are often accompanied by other information relating to the individual child depicted, including their name, grade, school, as well as lewd or otherwise offensive descriptions relating to the individual’s purported behaviour,” she stated in her affidavit.

The material is sourced from the community by sharing links to an anonymous uploading service. She annexed several of these posts to the court documents as evidence.

zelda.venter@inl.co.za

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