Meta’s use of artificial intelligence software to moderate its social media platforms is generating large volumes of useless reports about cases of child sexual abuse, which are draining resources and hindering investigations, said officers from the US Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) taskforce.
“We get a lot of tips from Meta that are just kind of junk,” Benjamin Zwiebel, a special agent with the ICAC taskforce in New Mexico, said last week during his testimony in the state’s trial against Meta. The state’s attorney general alleges the company’s platforms are putting profits over child safety. Meta disputes these allegations, citing changes it has introduced on its platforms, such as teen accounts with default protections. The ICAC taskforce is a nationwide network of law enforcement agencies coordinated with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to investigate and prosecute online child exploitation and abuse cases.
Another ICAC officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters, said: “Meta is providing thousands of tips each month. It’s pretty overwhelming because we’re getting so many reports, but the quality of the reports is really lacking in terms of our ability to take serious action.” The ICAC officer added that the total number of cybertips their department has received doubled from 2024 to 2025.
The unviable tips from Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, in some instances contain information that is not criminal, both Zweibel and two ICAC officers said. Tips sometimes contain information indicating a crime may have occurred, yet vital images, videos or text are missing or redacted, the anonymous officers added.
“[Unvialble tips from] Instagram have really skyrocketed recently, especially in the last couple of months, and that’s one of the biggest places where we’re seeing this information not being provided,” the ICAC officer added. “In those cases, we don’t have the information to further the investigation. It weighs on you to know that this crime occurred, but we can’t identify the perpetrator.”
Asked about Zweibel’s testimony and the ICAC officers’ remarks, a Meta spokesperson said: “We’ve supported law enforcement to prosecute criminals for years: the DOJ has repeatedly praised our fast cooperation that has helped lead to arrests, and NCMEC has praised our streamlined and ‘improve[d]’ tip reporting process. In 2024, we received over 9,000 emergency requests from US authorities and resolved them within an average of 67 minutes – and even more quickly for cases involving child safety and suicide. Consistent with applicable law, we also report apparent child sexual exploitation imagery to NCMEC and support them to prioritize reports, from helping build their case management tool to labeling cybertips so they know which are urgent.”
The company pointed out that the agent, Zweibel, recommends the use of Meta’s teen accounts feature during his testimony, which…
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