An investigation finds 80+ livestreaming apps, like Bigo Live, on Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store that advertised child sexual abuse or bestiality
ALL THE TWs [embedded post] Justin Hendrix / @justinhendrix : “Smartphone apps downloaded from Apple and Google can allow parents and other abusers to connect with pedophiles who pay to watch — and direct — criminal behavior.” LinkedIn: Michael Salter : In 2020, the Australian bank Westpac was fined $1.2 billion for breaching money laundering law that included customer transfers for child sexual abuse livestreams in the Phillipines. … Jason Kravitz : If you remain unconvinced that tech platforms need to do more to protect children online, read this powerful (but stomach-turning) … Forums: r/psychologyofsex : Livestream apps available from Apple and Google are being used to facilitate child sexual abuse. On these apps, parents of children in poor …
Context & Ripple Effects
The investigation extends a recurring concern that large platforms can leave harmful activity available despite formal policies. It follows a [[a:843783|2023 advocacy campaign urging Apple to detect and remove child sexual-abuse material from iCloud]] and earlier reporting on Instagram accounts remaining active after allegations involving child imagery.
The significance is distribution-layer: Apple and Google are not merely hosting a single service but operating the app-store gateways through which many livestreaming products reach users.
First-order effects
- Apple and Google face immediate scrutiny over whether their app-review and enforcement processes detect apps whose advertising promotes child sexual abuse or bestiality.
- Bigo Live and the other identified livestreaming apps face heightened reputational and policy-compliance risk, while users and child-safety groups gain a concrete set of services to challenge.
Second-order effects
- The findings increase pressure on app-store operators to examine not only an app's initial submission but also its marketing, discovery surfaces, and ongoing behavior after approval.
- Livestreaming developers may face stricter review expectations and more costly trust-and-safety controls if storefront enforcement becomes more attentive to category-wide abuse signals.
Third-order effects
- If repeated findings keep spanning multiple apps, responsibility is likely to shift further from individual app operators toward the distribution platforms that set access rules and enforce them.
- The episode strengthens the case for treating app stores as safety gatekeepers, making the adequacy and auditability of their moderation systems a more central competitive and policy issue.
The trend: App-store governance is increasingly being tested on whether distribution platforms can prevent systemic harms across third-party apps, rather than simply remove isolated violations.