Facebook users have discovered that searching the phrase ‘chicken soup’ in the search bar results in a warning message about child abuse – but why?
Meta has very strict rules on what can be posted and does not allow any content or activity that sexually exploits or endangers children on the social media platform.
‘Chicken soup’ on Facebook returns abuse warning
If you search the phrase ‘chicken soup’ on Facebook, you receive a message that says: “Child sexual abuse is illegal.”
“We think your search might be associated with child sexual abuse. Child sexual abuse, or viewing sexual images or videos of children, can lead to imprisonment and other severe personal consequences,” it continues.
“Child sexual exploitation causes extreme harm to children. Searching for and viewing abusive and exploitative material adds to that harm. There are organizations that can provide help and support.”
Many are confused as to why the seemingly innocent phrase returns the warning. One person wrote on Twitter: “How the hell does searching ‘chicken soup’ cause this to come up?”
“Weird. If you put ‘chicken soup’ into the Facebook search engine, this comes up. What on earth is that about?” said another.
Why the child abuse message comes up
The warning comes up because distributors of child sexual abuse images are using coded language to post such content on social media without getting caught.
As explained by NBC, this “evades the companies’ detection tools” and allows the exploitative content to remain on the site, like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
“Sometimes they used generic terms with the initials ‘C.P.’, a common abbreviation for ‘child p***ography’ and code like ‘caldo de pollo’, which means ‘chicken soup’ in Spanish,” the publisher said.
It’s not clear why the phrase ‘chicken soup’ was chosen, but using normal language like this allows them to dodge detection.
However, Facebook has clearly realized the phrase is being used by child exploiters and is now displaying the warning message.
Facebook’s rules on child exploitation
In its policy details, Meta says that any content or activity that “threatens, depicts, praises, supports, provides instructions for, makes statements of intent, admits participation in or shares links” of the sexual exploitation of children cannot be posted on any of its platforms.
“When we become aware of apparent child exploitation, we report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), in compliance with applicable law,” they add.
Any content that violates these terms will be removed and further consequences could be taken, such as disabling or terminating the account.
Facebook understands that sometimes, people share nude images of their own children with good intentions, but say they “generally remove these images” because of the potential for abuse and to help avoid the possibility of others misappropriating the images.
Source: Why searching ‘chicken soup’ on Facebook returns child abuse warning (hitc.com)
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