Arachnid: Hunting the web’s darkest secrets

What if the worst thing that ever happened to you plays out every day, countless times, on anonymous computer screens all over the world.  Everyday tens of millions of images of child sexual abuse are circulating on global online platforms. And the proliferation of these images is getting worse as AI technology and deep fakes create an ever-expanding epidemic of online child sex exploitation.  The children depicted in those criminal images are REAL. Many are now adults held hostage by these disturbing images despite available technology like Canada’s Project Arachnid, which detects these images and sends out removal notices. Platforms often resist action citing privacy laws.  But in response the survivors and a group of motivated supporters are banding together across the globe to protect kids. Confronting their own trauma, they are speaking out, advocating for change internationally, demanding stronger laws that hold tech giants to account.  This six-part podcast series follows their long-shot fight against the most powerful companies in the world to end a massive, global trade in child sex abuse imagery. Follow Arachnid on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.