Abuse, money and surveillance: What does Ashton Kutcher do on controversial EU law against sexual exploitation of minors?

Since then, the American actor has become an activist against child sexual abuse, managing to raise nearly $27 million, according to data. This alleged NGO is registered as a charity in the list of pressure groups. European Union (EU). But he got into sales.”technology To defend children.

Among his creations, one tool, Spotlight, stands out. face recognition created by Amazon for watching Internet, create massive databases and detect potential victims in real time. Kutcher decided to give it away for free to different police departments across the United States, but marketed it through companies like Vimeo and others. OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT. Since 2018, the United States Department of Homeland Security has purchased licenses from him for a total of $4.3 million.

political influence

Thorn is part of a network of organizations that will commit up to $24 million to push the crackdown. European Commission Adopting a controversial law that would challenge platforms like Facebook anyone tiktok automatic scanning of all citizens’ encrypted communications to find illegal materials. This gave Kutcher access to the most powerful political figures in the EU, such as the president of the European Commission. Ursula von der Leyen,’eat European Parliament, Roberta Metsola.

Although the European Parliament has rejected mass surveillance and limited surveillance to suspicious cases, the agreement is not final. Concerns about the scanning of private messages have stalled negotiations between the European Parliament, the Commission and member states.

Its technology raises suspicion, but so do its activities. A journalistic investigation by ‘Balkan Insight’ last September revealed Thorn’s close cooperation with the European Commissioner for Home Affairs. Ylva Johansson. The Swedish politician wrote: “We shared many moments leading up to this proposal.” Julie CorduaShortly before Thorn’s manager made his controversial offer. “I now turn to you to help make this venture a success.”

So Thorn doesn’t just operate as a ‘lobby’ to strengthen laws against so-called evildoers. child pornography, but also develops algorithmic tools to detect this. If approved, the European regulation could turn into new revenue for this organization. This possibility is a conflict of interest at the highest levels of the executive branch EU This has led to many criticisms of his methods. I’m trying to push this law.

Doubts about its effect

Thorn tools are used every day. However, there are also doubts about its effectiveness. The company says it has helped identify more than 17,000 people victims minors in the last four years, but several experts say ‘The Cut’ is a inapplicable exaggeration. Amazon banned police from using AI in 2020 because it made mistakes when detecting racist people, but continued to allow its use for Spotlight.

Digital rights groups have warned that Thorn’s technology could lead to false accusations. The Commission denies this and assures that it is a detection method with a 99.9% accuracy rate. But the ‘Follow the money’ portal accessed internal political documents that questioned the capabilities of the company’s software. There is a real possibility that tech workers will manually review non-criminal private images.

That’s not the only problem. Thorn’s databases, which indiscriminately collect online sexual advertisements, also include data from: sex workers without your consent. For this reason, both experts and victims of human trafficking believe that the people they claim to protect may be harmed. Although the company claims Spotlight is used to detect minors, court and police records show it is used for adults, according to ‘Forbes’ research.

On September 14, Kutcher resigned as Thorn’s chairman after apologizing for publicly defending his actor friend. Danny MastersonHe was sentenced to 30 years in prison for raping two women.