The Gist: What you can do about the Abuse Factory
Four quick and powerful things you can do about X without even putting your phone down.
Hello there!
Yesterday's Gist, The Abuse Factory about X ,the child abuse material app, has been read quite widely. But people did message me with ideas for what to do next. So I thought I'd do a really quick list of four things you can do that really will make a difference.
1) Report the X and Grok apps on the Apple App Store and the Google Play store.
This is the one you might forget about, but I'm leading with it because it is quietly the most powerful action you can take. Apple and Google control these platforms. And the thing they both stress is that having an App Store comes with protections, moderation and supervision which stops apps going rogue and keeps users safe. If they block an app, it is DEAD.
On the app store on an iPhone, you scroll to the bottom of the app's listing and then you click the very last link "Report a Problem". Worth noting, you'll need to download the apps to see the report a problem link. You can do that, Report it and then delete them without ever opening them.
Follow the drop down menus to tell them you're reporting "Illegal content".
Then fill out the form. Here are some screenshots of my report to Apple to get you started. You'll also need to paste in the URL of the App. You get that by clicking the "Share" icon in the top right hand side of its page. It looks like a square with an arrow flying up out of it. Then tap "copy link" (or sometimes "copy URL"). Paste that URL into your complaint when they ask you for it.
2) Email your children's schools
People who have done this in the last few days have seen immediate results. The schools don't want to put child welfare or safety at risk. They just need to be able to know about the problem in a way that lets them describe it to Boards of Management and other parents, and to know what the solution is.
You can even email them the two paragraphs below and a link to the original Abuse Factory Gist as a quick way of explaining the problem.
"There is a new feature offered by X, (formerly Twitter) that makes child sex abuse material. A user can pay it money, as a subscription, and that's one of the services it offers. This doesn't happen by mistake or because the user has tricked or hacked the system. That's just part of the features its owner has advertised as one of the benefits of being a customer.... Schools use X because it used to be a handy way of communicating with parents about what their children did while they were in school. They'd post wholesome pictures of children from 5 up, doing sweet and fun things at events like Sports Days or Charity collections.
All of those images of Irish children from school accounts uploaded to this factory are now available, as a result of this new feature offered by X, for anyone to ask it to generate new pictures, showing all those schoolchildren undressed. While school accounts remain online with this platform, the platform will keep offering them as fodder for their users of this service.
Please confirm that my child's school will delete it's account without any delay."
3) Email your TDs and say you really need them to close their X Account
You can find your TD's contact details at this link. Again, just let them know how important the issue is to you, that you consider elected representatives using a child sex abuse material platform a red line for you as a voter and ask them to close their accounts. This isn't a party political request. You can point out that both Ministers Patrick O'Donovan and Niamh Smyth from the Government and Gary Gannon from the Opposition have left X.
If you're feeling very energetic you could send the same sort of a message to your local councillors.
4) Email Irish Rail and ask them to stop using X as their sole service update method
If we want people to leave X (and we do) then it should not be used for essential service notices. Irish Rail is critical for people trying to get to work, or home from visiting friends and families. Updates from it should not be only available on a platform that generates child sex abuse material and illegal sexual harassment imagery. They have their own app they could use. They have a webpage they could use. Or they could use Bluesky, or Instagram, or literally anywhere else.
Time to remind them who those service announcements are meant to serve.
