Turkey’s ‘white hat hackers’ clamp down on videos with child abuse content

Eray Görgülü- ANKARA

A branch known as the “white hat hackers,” set up within the Communication Technologies Authority (BTK), has been tracing abusive social media accounts following reports that there were videos on YouTube with child abuse content.

Cyber police forces also have taken action to identify social media accounts sharing content that could tantamount to abuse.

As negotiations with YouTube started on removing accounts that share harmful content, company officials were asked to be more sensitive toward such broadcasts.

YouTube also informed that such broadcasts that are against “community rules” will continue to be removed.

The Family, Labor and Social Services Ministry had taken legal action against four YouTube accounts broadcasting animations with child abuse contents on June 1.

The controversial videos, which caused huge public anger, was widely discussed on social media platforms.

According to officials, the videos contain two types of offense: Child abuse and the praising of offense and the offender.

According to the Transparency Report released by YouTube late 2019, 5.8 million accounts were deleted.

Nearly 16 percent of these accounts were removed from the website for the “safety of children.”

A “white hat hacker,” also called “ethical hacker” or “certified hacker,” tests systems and networks by trying to break into them.

They are hackers, but their talents are being used to improve cyber security, authorities have said.