Philips Hue has been having a holiday outage, too

Alexa wasn’t the only thing that crashed over Christmas due to an influx of new users. Apparently, Philips Hue has been having an outage as well. A multi-day outage, in fact. The company confirmed on Wednesday that customers were experiencing issues creating new accounts, logging in, and linking their account to third parties. It blamed the issues on “a lot of new activations.”

In other words, many people received Hue’s connected lighting products over the holidays and were now trying to set up their smart bulbs and other devices all around the same time. Hue’s servers couldn’t keep up with the demand and weren’t responding to the incoming requests. That meant users couldn’t create or log into their MyHue account, or connect their lights to their Amazon Echo or Google Home.

Customers were, understandably, very frustrated – especially since their issues began on Christmas, and had continued for days with no word from the company.

It's been almost two full days of being unable to log into MyHue or connect with my Echo. You really should consider a small coupon for all the people affected this Christmas. Lots of other smart bulb options out there…

— John Daniel Hubbard (@JDanHubbard) December 27, 2018

It’s been two days.

— Holly Quate (@hollyquate) December 26, 2018

Others complained they had wasted several hours troubleshooting the problem, having not realized it was a Hue outage that was at fault, as a result of this lack of communication.

I find this out after wasting 5 hours of my St Stephens day trying to link my account to my google home assistant Ridiculous

— Lorraine Comiskey (@Jewelor) December 26, 2018

I am so stressed spent 5 hours last night trying to troubleshoot and nothing your lights are awesome but the problem with the software is really killing it for me just spent $500 on your lights would be nice if I could control them with my google home

— Logan czarnecki (@LoganCzarnecki) December 26, 2018

Philips Hue’s Twitter account didn’t make a public announcement about the outage until Wednesday – instead, the company was only replying to individual users.

Because Twitter hides replies in a separate tab, visitors to Hue’s Twitter page wouldn’t have seen any statements from the company unless they clicked over to see the back-and-forth conversations with Hue’s customers – and some of those weren’t outage-related.

People who followed Hue on Twitter wouldn’t have seen these replies in their own timelines, either.

We’re currently seeing a lot of new activations which may result in some customers not being able to create a new account, log in, or link their account to third parties. We hope to have this solved soon and like to ask you to try again later. Apologies and happy holidays!

— Philips Hue (@tweethue) December 26, 2018

Philips Hue had also downplayed the problem in its initial replies, as well, saying server issues were affecting only a “small percentage” of users.

Customers were told to try again or try in a few hours.

Hi. Unfortunately we have been facing some issues with our servers, affecting a small percentage of our users. We advise you to try again, or try again in a few hours. Our developers are looking into it. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

— Philips Hue (@tweethue) December 26, 2018

While Alexa had crashed on Christmas due to a similar problem of too many new users hitting its servers all at once, its outage only lasted for a couple of hours.

In Philip Hue’s case, customers have been inconvenienced for much longer.

Many are also new Hue customers – those who are trying to trying to create their account and set up their devices for the first time. For some, Hue’s smart light bulbs may even be their first experience with a smart home device – and this outage may leave them not wanting to try again.

Early on Thursday, Hue’s Twitter account began to reply to individual users, telling them the service “should be up and running.”

But it also warned them that, depending on demand, they may have to try a few times today to get everything going. The company additionally suggested to some that they should try to set up the lights during off-peak hours, like the morning.

We reached out to Philips Hue to ask if the outage was indeed resolved, and will update with a statement if one is provided.

Hey Natalia, we are sorry about that. We can assure you that it will work again later and your present isn't ruined forever. At the moment the service should be up and running depending on the demand at the moment, so please try again a few times today. Our sincere apologies.

— Philips Hue (@tweethue) December 27, 2018

Hey Brad, the issue should now be resolved, during peak times you might still not be able to complete your account setup. We’d like to ask you to try again, preferably during a quieter moment, for example in the morning. We’re working hard on a solution to prevent this.

— Philips Hue (@tweethue) December 27, 2018

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Instagram accidentally rolled out tap-to-advance feed, removes it

Instagram confirms that a bug this morning mistakenly rolled out a massive change to its feed that replaced the traditional scrolling with horizontal tap-to-advance like with Stories. In October, TechCrunch reported Instagram was testing tap-to-advance for browsing through Explore posts. But many users woke up to a shock this morning when their familiar vertical swipe stopped advancing the main feed. Many users immediately complained that the gesture felt awkward and annoying.

“Due to a bug, some users saw a change to the way their feed appears today. We quickly fixed the issue and feed is back to normal. We apologize for any confusion” an Instagram spokesperson tells TechCrunch. The company confirms it’s still testing the navigation style in Explore.

Instagram was attempting to test the feature with a small percentage of users, but the bug caused a much broader rollout to a few orders of magnitude more people than planned, according to head of Instagram Adam Mosseri. Users can restart their Instagram and the change should disappear.

Sorry about that, this was supposed to be a very small test but we went broader than we anticipated.

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) December 27, 2018

Tap-to-advance makes it easier to move between posts with them staying fully in view, compared to scrolling where it can take some adjustment to make sure the top or bottom of a post isn’t cut off. But scrolling revealed the author of a post first, then the content, then the caption, which is a sensible and intuitive way to browse. Tap-to-advance could send users’ eyes flitting around the screen in an exhausting manner. But most importantly, people have spent eight years growing accustomed to scrolling the Instagram feed. Suddenly breaking that behavior pattern was sure to piss people off.

It’s possible that Instagram could still bring tap-to-advance to the main feed in the future. But given how angry the responses were, it might now think twice unless the data shows the change makes people spend a lot more time in the app.

Here’s a look at how tap-to-advance in the feed worked, and the alert users got about how it works.

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Instagram accidentally rolled out tap-to-advance feed, removes it

Instagram confirms that a bug this morning mistakenly rolled out a massive change to its feed that replaced the traditional scrolling with horizontal tap-to-advance like with Stories. In October, TechCrunch reported Instagram was testing tap-to-advance for browsing through Explore posts. But many users woke up to a shock this morning when their familiar vertical swipe stopped advancing the main feed. Many users immediately complained that the gesture felt awkward and annoying.

“Due to a bug, some users saw a change to the way their feed appears today. We quickly fixed the issue and feed is back to normal. We apologize for any confusion” an Instagram spokesperson tells TechCrunch. The company confirms it’s still testing the navigation style in Explore.

Instagram was attempting to test the feature with a small percentage of users, but the bug caused a much broader rollout to a few orders of magnitude more people than planned, according to head of Instagram Adam Mosseri. Users can restart their Instagram and the change should disappear.

Sorry about that, this was supposed to be a very small test but we went broader than we anticipated.

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) December 27, 2018

Tap-to-advance makes it easier to move between posts with them staying fully in view, compared to scrolling where it can take some adjustment to make sure the top or bottom of a post isn’t cut off. But scrolling revealed the author of a post first, then the content, then the caption, which is a sensible and intuitive way to browse. Tap-to-advance could send users’ eyes flitting around the screen in an exhausting manner. But most importantly, people have spent eight years growing accustomed to scrolling the Instagram feed. Suddenly breaking that behavior pattern was sure to piss people off.

It’s possible that Instagram could still bring tap-to-advance to the main feed in the future. But given how angry the responses were, it might now think twice unless the data shows the change makes people spend a lot more time in the app.

Here’s a look at how tap-to-advance in the feed worked, and the alert users got about how it works.

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Gfycat’s ‘GIFs’ can now keep the sound on

Gfycat, a home for GIF-making tools and an online community, is rolling out a new way to create GIFs — it will now let you keep the sound on. With “Gfycat Sound,” as the feature is called, GIF makers will have the option to retain the audio from the video file they’re using to create their “GIF” — something Gfycat believes will be especially popular among gamers.

The company had already experimented with other types of non-traditional GIFs, like longer GIFs, AR GIFs, HD GIFs and 360 GIFs, for example, in order to evolve the concept of the GIF beyond the classic, grainy loop.

Of course, the resulting GIFs aren’t “.gifs” at this point — they’re short-form videos.

The same holds true for “Gfycat Sound.” But end users don’t necessarily care about the GIFs’ technical underpinnings — they just want to create and share short clips pulled from longer pieces of content.

The company says it decided to roll out support for sound after polling its community for their top feature requests earlier this year. “GIFs with sound” came back as the top demand from users.

To take advantage of the added support, GIF creators will be able to toggle a switch in Gfycat’s upload tool to keep the sound on or remove it before creating their GIF. As before, GIFs can be created using a video file you upload, or through a link you paste from a site like YouTube, Facebook, Twitch or elsewhere. And if users upload a .gif file or a video that doesn’t have sound, the software will detect that on its end.

The GIF editing software lets you select the start and stop times for the GIF and add captions before sharing, as well.

Once the GIF is uploaded to Gfycat’s site, users will be able to view the audio GIFs while browsing by clicking the icon on the top-right of the GIF to turn the sound on. (The site will default to sound off, thankfully – you won’t all of a sudden be bombarded with noise.)

These new “audio GIFs” work on all mobile and desktop browsers at launch, and will come to Gfycat’s iOS and Android apps in 2019, as well as to its API documentation for developers.

“We see our creators using gaming first and foremost for Gfycat Sound, as e-sports has become a global phenomenon,” explains Gfycat CEO Richard Rabbat. “Now, a gamer can share their achievement with the sound of the ‘shot’ that won her or him the game and achieve more virality for their content,” he says. “We also see our sports content benefiting from Gfycat Sound because you can now share the emotions of the audience,” Rabbat added.

via Gfycat

While an actual GIF file cannot have sound, Gfycat is not the first GIF toolmaker that has expanded to include short-form video alongside its traditional collection of .gifs — Imgur did the same back in May. The reasoning in that case was similar — sometimes you need to hear the clip to really enjoy the content. Plus, advertisers love video, too.

Despite their silly nature, GIFs are a big business these days. Google acquired top GIF platform Tenor earlier this year. At the time, the company was seeing more than 12 billion searches per month.

Gfycat in April said it had 180 million monthly active users, and 500 million page views.

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Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, banked a $3 billion profit in 2018

Epic Games had as good a year in 2018 as any company in tech. Fortnite became the world’s most popular game, growing the company’s valuation to $15 billion but it has helped the company pile up cash, too. Epic grossed a $3 billion profit for this year fuelled by the continued success of Fortnite, a source with knowledge of the business told TechCrunch.

Epic did not respond to a request for comment.

Fortnite, which is free to play but makes money selling digital items, has popularized the battle royale category — think Lord of the Flies meets Hunger Games — almost single-handedly and it has been the standout title for the U.S-based game publisher.

Epic, which was founded way back in 1991, hasn’t given revenue figures for its smash hit — which has 125 million players — but this new profit milestone, combined with other pieces of data, gives an idea of the success that the company is seeing as a result of a prescient change in strategy made six years ago.

This past September, Epic commanded a valuation of nearly $15 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal, as marquee investors like KKR, Kleiner Perkins and Lightspeed piled in on a $1.25 billion round to grab a slice of the red-hot development firm. However, the investment cards haven’t always been stacked in Epic’s favor.

China’s Tencent, the maker of blockbuster chat app WeChat and a prolific games firm in its own right, became the first outside investor in Epic’s business back in 2012 when it injected $330 million in exchange for a 40 percent stake in the business.

Back then, Epic was best known for Unreal Engine, the third-party development platform that it still operates today, and top-selling titles like Gears of War.

Why would a proven company give up such a huge slice of its business? Executives believed that Epic, as it was, was living on borrow time. They sensed a change in the way games were headed based on diminishing returns and growing budgets for console games, the increase of ‘live’ games like League of Legends and the emerging role of smartphones.

Speaking to Polygon about the Tencent deal, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney explained that the investment money from Tencent allowed the company to go down the route of freemium games rather than big box titles. That’s a strategy Sweeney called “Epic 4.0.”

“We realized that the business really needed to change its approach quite significantly. We were seeing some of the best games in the industry being built and operated as live games over time rather than big retail releases. We recognized that the ideal role for Epic in the industry is to drive that, and so we began the transition of being a fairly narrow console developer focused on Xbox to being a multi-platform game developer and self publisher, and indie on a larger scale,” he explained.

Tencent, Sweeney added, has provided “an enormous amount of useful advice” while the capital enabled Epic to “make this huge leap without the immediate of fear of money.”

LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 12: Gamers ‘Ninja’ (L) and ‘Marshmello’ compete in the Epic Games Fortnite E3 Tournament at the Banc of California Stadium on June 12, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Epic never had a problem making money — Sweeney told Polygon the first Gear of Wars release grossed $100 million on a $12 million development budget — but with Fortnite the company has redefined modern gaming, both by making true cross-platform experiences possible and by pulling in vast amounts of money.

As a private company, Epic keeps its financials closely guarded. But digging beyond the $3 billion figure — which, to be clear, is annual profit not revenue — there are clues as to just how big a money-spinner Fortnite is. Certainly, there’s room to wonder whether analyst predictions this summer that Fortnite would gross $2 billion this year were too conservative.

The most recent data comes from November when Sensor Tower estimates that iOS users alone were spending $1.23 million per day. That helped the game bank $37 million in the month and take its total earnings within Apple’s iOS platform to more than $385 million.

But, as mentioned, Fortnite is a cross-platform title that supports PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, PC, Mac, Android and iOS. Aggregating revenue cross those platforms isn’t easy, and the only real estimate comes from earlier this year when Super Data Research concluded that the game made $318 million in May across all platforms.

That is, of course, when Fortnite was fresh on iOS, non-existent on Android and with fewer overall players.

We can deduct from Sensor Tower’s November estimate that iOS pulled in $385 million over eight months — between April and November — which is around $48 million per month on average. Android is harder to calculate since Epic skipped Google’s Play Store by distributing its own launcher. While it quickly picked up 15 million Android users within the first month, tracking that spending off-platform is a huge challenge. Some estimates predicted that Google would miss out on around $50 million in lost earnings this year because in-app purchases on Android would not cross its services.

There are a few factors to add further uncertainty.

Fornite spending tends to spike around the release of new seasons — updated versions of the game — since users are encouraged to buy specific packages at the start. The latest, Season 7, dropped early this month with a range of tweaks for the Christmas period. Give the increased velocity that Fortnite is picking up players and the appeal of the festive period, this could have been its biggest revenue generator to date but there’s not yet any indicator of how it performed.

More broadly, Fortnite has undoubtedly lost out on revenue in China, which frozen new game licenses nine months ago thereby preventing any publishers from monetizing new titles over that period.

Tencent, which publishes Fortnite in China, did release the game in the country but it hasn’t been able to draw revenue from it yet. The Chinese government announced last week that it is close to approving its first batch of new titles but it isn’t clear which games are included and when the process will be done.

Already, the effects have been felt.

Games are forecast to generate nearly $40 billion in revenue in China this year, according to market researcher Newzoo. However, the industry saw its slowest growth over the last 10 years as it grew 5.4 percent year-over-year during the first half of 2018, according to a report by Beijing-based research firm GPC and China’s official gaming association CNG.

Fortnite and PUBG — another battle royale title backed by Tencent — have perhaps suffered the most since they are universally popular worldwide but unable to monetize in China. It seems almost certain that those two titles will receive a major marketing push if, as and when they receive the license and, if Epic can keep the game competitive as Sweeney believed it could back in 2012, then it could go on and make even more money in 2019.

Epic Games is taking on Steam with its own digital game store, which includes higher take-home revenue rates for developers.

But Epic isn’t relying solely on Fortnite.

A more lowkey but significant launch this month was the opening of the Epic Game Store which is aimed squarely at Steam, the leader in digital game sales.

While Fortnite is its most prolific release, Epic also makes money from other games, Unreal Engine and a recently launched online game store that rivals Steam. Epic’s big differentiator for the store is that it gives developers 88 percent of their revenue, as opposed to Value — the firm behind Steam — which keeps 30 percent, although it has added varying rates for more successful titles. Customers are promised a free title every two weeks.

Either way, Epic is betting that it can do a lot more than Fortnite which could mean that its profit margin is even higher come this time next year.

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Google & Facebook fed ad dollars to child porn discovery apps

Google has scrambled to remove third-party apps that led users to child porn sharing groups on WhatsApp in the wake of TechCrunch’s report about the problem last week. We contacted Google with the name of one these apps and evidence that it and others offered links to WhatsApp groups for sharing child exploitation imagery. Following publication of our article, Google removed that app and at least five like it from the Google Play store. Several of these apps had over 100,000 downloads, and they’re still functional on devices that already downloaded them.

A screenshot from today of active child exploitation groups on WhatsApp. Phone numbers and photos redacted

WhatsApp failed to adequately police its platform, confirming to TechCrunch that it’s only moderated by its own 300 employees and not Facebook’s 20,000 dedicated security and moderation staffers. It’s clear that scalable and efficient artificial intelligence systems are not up to the task of protecting the 1.5 billion user WhatsApp community, and companies like Facebook must invest more in unscalable human investigators.

But now, new research provided exclusively to TechCrunch by anti-harassment algorithm startup AntiToxin shows that these removed apps that hosted links to child porn sharing rings on WhatsApp were supported with ads run by Google and Facebook’s ad networks. AntiToxin found 6 of these apps ran Google AdMob, 1 ran Google Firebase, 2 ran Facebook Audience Network, and 1 ran StartApp. These ad networks earned a cut of brands’ marketing spend while allowing the apps to monetize and sustain their operations by hosting ads for Amazon, Microsoft, Motorola, Sprint, Sprite, Western Union, Dyson, DJI, Gett, Yandex Music, Q Link Wireless, Tik Tok, and more.

The situation reveals that tech giants aren’t just failing to spot offensive content in their own apps, but also in third-party apps that host their ads and that earn them money. While these apps like “Group Links For Whats” by Lisa Studio let people discover benign links to WhatsApp groups for sharing legal content and discussing topics like business or sports, TechCrunch found they also hosted links with titles such as “child porn only no adv” and “child porn xvideos” that led to WhatsApp groups with names like “Children ” or “videos cp” — a known abbreviation for ‘child pornography’.

WhatsApp has an encrypted child porn problem

In a video provided by AntiToxin seen below, the app “Group Links For Whats by Lisa Studio” that ran Google AdMob is shown displaying an interstitial ad for Q Link Wireless before providing WhatsApp group search results for “child”. A group described as “Child nude FBI POLICE” is surfaced, and when the invite link is clicked, it opens within WhatsApp to a group called “Children ”.  (No illegal imagery is shown in this video or article. TechCrunch has omitted the end of the video that showed a URL for an illegal group and the phone numbers of its members.)

Another video shows the app “Group Link For whatsapp by Video Status Zone” that ran Google AdMob and Facebook Audience Network displaying a link to a WhatsApp group described as “only cp video”. When tapped, the app first surfaces an interstitial ad for Amazon Photos before revealing a button for opening the group within WhatsApp. These videos show how alarmingly easy it was for people to find illegal content sharing groups on WhatsApp, even without WhatsApp’s help.

Zero Tolerance Doesn’t Mean Zero Illegal Content

In response, a Google spokesperson tells me that these group discovery apps violated its content policies and it’s continuing to look for more like them to ban. When they’re identified and removed from Google Play, it also suspends their access to its ad networks. However, it refused to disclose how much money these apps earned and whether it would refund the advertisers. The company provided this statement:

“Google has a zero tolerance approach to child sexual abuse material and we’ve invested in technology, teams and partnerships with groups like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, to tackle this issue for more than two decades. If we identify an app promoting this kind of material that our systems haven’t already blocked, we report it to the relevant authorities and remove it from our platform. These policies apply to apps listed in the Play store as well as apps that use Google’s advertising services.”

App	Developer	Ad Network	Estimated Installs	Last Day Ranked
Unlimited Whats Groups Without Limit Group links	Jack Rehan	Google AdMob	200,000	12/18/2018
Unlimited Group Links for Whatsapp	NirmalaAppzTech	Google AdMob	127,000	12/18/2018
Group Invite For Whatsapp	Villainsbrain	Google Firebase	126,000	12/18/2018
Public Group for WhatsApp	Bit-Build	Google AdMob, Facebook Audience Network	86,000	12/18/2018
Group links for Whats – Find Friends for Whats	Lisa Studio	Google AdMob	54,000	12/19/2018
Unlimited Group Links for Whatsapp 2019	Natalie Pack	Google AdMob	3,000	12/20/2018
Group Link For whatsapp	Video Status Zone	Google AdMob, Facebook Audience Network	97,000	11/13/2018
Group Links For Whatsapp – Free Joining	Developers.pk	StartAppSDK	29,000	12/5/2018

Facebook meanwhile blamed Google Play, saying the apps’ eligibility for its Facebook Audience Network ads was tied to their availability on Google Play and that the apps were removed from FAN when booted from the Android app store. The company was more forthcoming, telling TechCrunch it will refund advertisers whose promotions appeared on these abhorrent apps. It’s also pulling Audience Network from all apps that let users discover WhatsApp Groups.

A Facebook spokesperson tells TechCrunch that “Audience Network monetization eligibility is closely tied to app store (in this case Google) review. We removed [Public Group for WhatsApp by Bit-Build] when Google did – it is not currently monetizing on Audience Network. Our policies are on our website and out of abundance of caution we’re ensuring Audience Network does not support any group invite link apps. This app earned very little revenue (less than $500), which we are refunding to all impacted advertisers.”

Facebook also provided this statement about WhatsApp’s stance on illegal imagery sharing groups and third-party apps for finding them:

“WhatsApp does not provide a search function for people or groups – nor does WhatsApp encourage publication of invite links to private groups. WhatsApp regularly engages with Google and Apple to enforce their terms of service on apps that attempt to encourage abuse on WhatsApp. Following the reports earlier this week, WhatsApp asked Google to remove all known group link sharing apps. When apps are removed from Google Play store, they are also removed from Audience Network.”

An app with links for discovering illegal WhatsApp Groups runs an ad for Amazon Photos

Israeli NGOs Netivei Reshet and Screen Savers worked with AntiToxin to provide a report published by TechCrunch about the wide extent of child exploitation imagery they found on WhatsApp. Facebook and WhatsApp are still waiting on the groups to work with Israeli police to provide their full research so WhatsApp can delete illegal groups they discovered and terminate user accounts that joined them.

AntiToxin develops technologies for protecting online networks harassment, bullying, shaming, predatory behavior and sexually explicit activity. It was co-founded by Zohar Levkovitz who sold Amobee to SingTel for $400M, and Ron Porat who was the CEO of ad-blocker Shine. [Disclosure: The company also employs Roi Carthy, who contributed to TechCrunch from 2007 to 2012.] “Online toxicity is at unprecedented levels, at unprecedented scale, with unprecedented risks for children, which is why completely new thinking has to be applied to technology solutions that help parents keep their children safe” Levkovitz tells me. The company is pushing Apple to remove WhatsApp from the App Store until the problems are fixed, citing how Apple temporarily suspended Tumblr due to child pornography.

Ad Networks Must Be Monitored

Encryption has proven an impediment to WhatsApp preventing the spread of child exploitation imagery. WhatsApp can’t see what is shared inside of group chats. Instead it has to rely on the few pieces of public and unencrypted data such as group names and profile photos plus their members’ profile photos, looking for suspicious names or illegal images. The company matches those images to a PhotoDNA database of known child exploitation photos to administer bans, and has human moderators investigate if seemingly illegal images aren’t already on file. It then reports its findings to law enforcement and the National Center For Missing And Exploited Children. Strong encryption is important for protecting privacy and political dissent, but also thwarts some detection of illegal content and thereby necessitates more manual moderation.

With just 300 total employees and only a subset working on security or content moderation, WhatsApp seems understaffed to manage such a large user base. It’s tried to depend on AI to safeguard its community. However, that technology can’t yet perform the nuanced investigations necessary to combat exploitation. WhatsApp runs semi-independently of Facebook, but could hire more moderators to investigate group discovery apps that lead to child pornography if Facebook allocated more resources to its acquisition.

WhatsApp group discovery apps featured Adult sections that contained links to child exploitation imagery groups

Google and Facebook, with their vast headcounts and profit margins, are neglecting to properly police who hosts their ad networks. The companies have sought to earn extra revenue by powering ads on other apps, yet failed to assume the necessary responsibility to ensure those apps aren’t facilitating crimes. Stricter examinations of in-app content should be administered before an app is accepted to app stores or ad networks, and periodically once they’re running. And when automated systems can’t be deployed, as can be the case with policing third-party apps, human staffers should be assigned despite the cost.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that social networks and ad networks that profit off of other people’s content can’t be low-maintenance cash cows. Companies should invest ample money and labor into safeguarding any property they run or monetize even if it makes the opportunities less lucrative. The strip-mining of the internet without regard for consequences must end.

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Google & Facebook fed ad dollars to child porn discovery apps

Google has scrambled to remove third-party apps that led users to child porn sharing groups on WhatsApp in the wake of TechCrunch’s report about the problem last week. We contacted Google with the name of one these apps and evidence that it and others offered links to WhatsApp groups for sharing child exploitation imagery. Following publication of our article, Google removed that app and at least five like it from the Google Play store. Several of these apps had over 100,000 downloads, and they’re still functional on devices that already downloaded them.

A screenshot from today of active child exploitation groups on WhatsApp. Phone numbers and photos redacted

WhatsApp failed to adequately police its platform, confirming to TechCrunch that it’s only moderated by its own 300 employees and not Facebook’s 20,000 dedicated security and moderation staffers. It’s clear that scalable and efficient artificial intelligence systems are not up to the task of protecting the 1.5 billion user WhatsApp community, and companies like Facebook must invest more in unscalable human investigators.

But now, new research provided exclusively to TechCrunch by anti-harassment algorithm startup AntiToxin shows that these removed apps that hosted links to child porn sharing rings on WhatsApp were supported with ads run by Google and Facebook’s ad networks. AntiToxin found 6 of these apps ran Google AdMob, 1 ran Google Firebase, 2 ran Facebook Audience Network, and 1 ran StartApp. These ad networks earned a cut of brands’ marketing spend while allowing the apps to monetize and sustain their operations by hosting ads for Amazon, Microsoft, Motorola, Sprint, Sprite, Western Union, Dyson, DJI, Gett, Yandex Music, Q Link Wireless, Tik Tok, and more.

The situation reveals that tech giants aren’t just failing to spot offensive content in their own apps, but also in third-party apps that host their ads and that earn them money. While these apps like “Group Links For Whats” by Lisa Studio let people discover benign links to WhatsApp groups for sharing legal content and discussing topics like business or sports, TechCrunch found they also hosted links with titles such as “child porn only no adv” and “child porn xvideos” that led to WhatsApp groups with names like “Children ” or “videos cp” — a known abbreviation for ‘child pornography’.

WhatsApp has an encrypted child porn problem

In a video provided by AntiToxin seen below, the app “Group Links For Whats by Lisa Studio” that ran Google AdMob is shown displaying an interstitial ad for Q Link Wireless before providing WhatsApp group search results for “child”. A group described as “Child nude FBI POLICE” is surfaced, and when the invite link is clicked, it opens within WhatsApp to a group called “Children ”.  (No illegal imagery is shown in this video or article. TechCrunch has omitted the end of the video that showed a URL for an illegal group and the phone numbers of its members.)

Another video shows the app “Group Link For whatsapp by Video Status Zone” that ran Google AdMob and Facebook Audience Network displaying a link to a WhatsApp group described as “only cp video”. When tapped, the app first surfaces an interstitial ad for Amazon Photos before revealing a button for opening the group within WhatsApp. These videos show how alarmingly easy it was for people to find illegal content sharing groups on WhatsApp, even without WhatsApp’s help.

Zero Tolerance Doesn’t Mean Zero Illegal Content

In response, a Google spokesperson tells me that these group discovery apps violated its content policies and it’s continuing to look for more like them to ban. When they’re identified and removed from Google Play, it also suspends their access to its ad networks. However, it refused to disclose how much money these apps earned and whether it would refund the advertisers. The company provided this statement:

“Google has a zero tolerance approach to child sexual abuse material and we’ve invested in technology, teams and partnerships with groups like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, to tackle this issue for more than two decades. If we identify an app promoting this kind of material that our systems haven’t already blocked, we report it to the relevant authorities and remove it from our platform. These policies apply to apps listed in the Play store as well as apps that use Google’s advertising services.”

App	Developer	Ad Network	Estimated Installs	Last Day Ranked
Unlimited Whats Groups Without Limit Group links	Jack Rehan	Google AdMob	200,000	12/18/2018
Unlimited Group Links for Whatsapp	NirmalaAppzTech	Google AdMob	127,000	12/18/2018
Group Invite For Whatsapp	Villainsbrain	Google Firebase	126,000	12/18/2018
Public Group for WhatsApp	Bit-Build	Google AdMob, Facebook Audience Network	86,000	12/18/2018
Group links for Whats – Find Friends for Whats	Lisa Studio	Google AdMob	54,000	12/19/2018
Unlimited Group Links for Whatsapp 2019	Natalie Pack	Google AdMob	3,000	12/20/2018
Group Link For whatsapp	Video Status Zone	Google AdMob, Facebook Audience Network	97,000	11/13/2018
Group Links For Whatsapp – Free Joining	Developers.pk	StartAppSDK	29,000	12/5/2018

Facebook meanwhile blamed Google Play, saying the apps’ eligibility for its Facebook Audience Network ads was tied to their availability on Google Play and that the apps were removed from FAN when booted from the Android app store. The company was more forthcoming, telling TechCrunch it will refund advertisers whose promotions appeared on these abhorrent apps. It’s also pulling Audience Network from all apps that let users discover WhatsApp Groups.

A Facebook spokesperson tells TechCrunch that “Audience Network monetization eligibility is closely tied to app store (in this case Google) review. We removed [Public Group for WhatsApp by Bit-Build] when Google did – it is not currently monetizing on Audience Network. Our policies are on our website and out of abundance of caution we’re ensuring Audience Network does not support any group invite link apps. This app earned very little revenue (less than $500), which we are refunding to all impacted advertisers.”

Facebook also provided this statement about WhatsApp’s stance on illegal imagery sharing groups and third-party apps for finding them:

“WhatsApp does not provide a search function for people or groups – nor does WhatsApp encourage publication of invite links to private groups. WhatsApp regularly engages with Google and Apple to enforce their terms of service on apps that attempt to encourage abuse on WhatsApp. Following the reports earlier this week, WhatsApp asked Google to remove all known group link sharing apps. When apps are removed from Google Play store, they are also removed from Audience Network.”

An app with links for discovering illegal WhatsApp Groups runs an ad for Amazon Photos

Israeli NGOs Netivei Reshet and Screen Savers worked with AntiToxin to provide a report published by TechCrunch about the wide extent of child exploitation imagery they found on WhatsApp. Facebook and WhatsApp are still waiting on the groups to work with Israeli police to provide their full research so WhatsApp can delete illegal groups they discovered and terminate user accounts that joined them.

AntiToxin develops technologies for protecting online networks harassment, bullying, shaming, predatory behavior and sexually explicit activity. It was co-founded by Zohar Levkovitz who sold Amobee to SingTel for $400M, and Ron Porat who was the CEO of ad-blocker Shine. [Disclosure: The company also employs Roi Carthy, who contributed to TechCrunch from 2007 to 2012.] “Online toxicity is at unprecedented levels, at unprecedented scale, with unprecedented risks for children, which is why completely new thinking has to be applied to technology solutions that help parents keep their children safe” Levkovitz tells me. The company is pushing Apple to remove WhatsApp from the App Store until the problems are fixed, citing how Apple temporarily suspended Tumblr due to child pornography.

Ad Networks Must Be Monitored

Encryption has proven an impediment to WhatsApp preventing the spread of child exploitation imagery. WhatsApp can’t see what is shared inside of group chats. Instead it has to rely on the few pieces of public and unencrypted data such as group names and profile photos plus their members’ profile photos, looking for suspicious names or illegal images. The company matches those images to a PhotoDNA database of known child exploitation photos to administer bans, and has human moderators investigate if seemingly illegal images aren’t already on file. It then reports its findings to law enforcement and the National Center For Missing And Exploited Children. Strong encryption is important for protecting privacy and political dissent, but also thwarts some detection of illegal content and thereby necessitates more manual moderation.

With just 300 total employees and only a subset working on security or content moderation, WhatsApp seems understaffed to manage such a large user base. It’s tried to depend on AI to safeguard its community. However, that technology can’t yet perform the nuanced investigations necessary to combat exploitation. WhatsApp runs semi-independently of Facebook, but could hire more moderators to investigate group discovery apps that lead to child pornography if Facebook allocated more resources to its acquisition.

WhatsApp group discovery apps featured Adult sections that contained links to child exploitation imagery groups

Google and Facebook, with their vast headcounts and profit margins, are neglecting to properly police who hosts their ad networks. The companies have sought to earn extra revenue by powering ads on other apps, yet failed to assume the necessary responsibility to ensure those apps aren’t facilitating crimes. Stricter examinations of in-app content should be administered before an app is accepted to app stores or ad networks, and periodically once they’re running. And when automated systems can’t be deployed, as can be the case with policing third-party apps, human staffers should be assigned despite the cost.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that social networks and ad networks that profit off of other people’s content can’t be low-maintenance cash cows. Companies should invest ample money and labor into safeguarding any property they run or monetize even if it makes the opportunities less lucrative. The strip-mining of the internet without regard for consequences must end.

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The Best Free VPN for Firefox

By now, you should be well aware of the importance of using a VPN, especially if you live in one of the so-called “14 Eyes” countries.

Today, we going to put Firefox under the spotlight. Here are some of the best free VPNs for Firefox that you should consider.

Warning: Free VPNs Come With Risks

Let’s preface this “best of” list with a caveat—you should never use a free VPN. Many of the VPNs we’re going to look at have questionable privacy policies and less-than-impressive backgrounds.

They’ll just about suffice if you want a quick way to access geo-blocked content. If you want a VPN to improve your online security, you need to splash out on a paid plan instead. We recommend ExpressVPN and CyberGhost.

1. Hoxx VPN

Hoxx VPN for Firefox is the popular free VPN on the browser. It boasts a 4.6-star rating off almost 7,000 reviews.

Hoxx VPN has more than 100 servers around the world covering a large number of countries. All you need to get started is a free Hoxx account.

The add-on can help you unlock sites, improve your internet privacy, hide your location, and avoid malicious websites. The VPN encrypts all the connections from your machine.

Unfortunately, a dig into Hoxx’s privacy policy reveals some unsavory information:

• Hoxx collects logs (including your browser, language, access times, pages viewed, and IP address).
• The VPN uses third-party tracking pixels.
• And Hoxx amasses lots of information about your device (including hardware model, operating system and version, unique device identifier, phone number, IMEI number, and mobile network information).

You can be confident all this data is being sold for a profit.

2. TouchVPN

TouchVPN also ranks highly. The unlimited free VPN has no session, speed, or bandwidth limitations.

With its one-click connect button, you can use servers in Sweden, the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, the United States, the Netherlands, and Canada.

TouchVPN is also highly secure. It uses banking-grade SSL encryption to keep your data safe.

On the downside—and this is going to be a reoccurring theme—the company’s privacy policy is full of holes. Like Hoxx, it logs your data and your personal information, as well as a worryingly vague reference to “other information.”

TouchVPN is also run from the U.S., meaning it’s in a “Five Eyes” territory. If you value your privacy, that’s a disturbing thing.

3. SetupVPN

SetupVPN is another free VPN for Firefox which makes you the product.

First of all, let’s look at the positives:

• Security: SetupVPN uses 4096-bit military grade encryption on all your communications.
• Servers: If you want to access geo-blocked content, the app will serve you well. It has more than 100 servers around the world.
• Speed: SetupVPN has no bandwidth or speed limitations.

And the bad side? Logs—lots of them. In addition to device and usage information, SetupVPN also logs your location. According to the privacy policy, it will even know the speed at which your device is traveling.

Users have also complained about a severe drop off in speed when you’re using servers on the other side of the world.

4. Hola VPN

Hola is a well-known name in the world of free VPNs, and the Hola VPN for Firefox is another common choice among Mozilla users. Unlike older version of Hola, the Firefox version of the add-on is not a peer-to-peer VPN network.

The VPN lets you access blocked websites in your country or even on your Wi-Fi network (Facebook in the office, anyone?),

Of course, the big downside of Hola is its questionable track record. In 2015, it was discovered that the company was selling access to its database exit nodes, essentially turning its users’ computers into a giant botnet.

The privacy policy also rings alarm bells. In addition to the log and device data that Hoxx collects, Hola also stores your full name, home address, email address, birth date, profile picture, friends list, and personal description if you use your social media credentials to log in.

5. Browsec VPN

Browsec offers both a paid and free VPN plan. Unsurprisingly, the free plan is much more limited than the paid alternative.

The VPN’s biggest drawback is the bandwidth restriction. It is capped at 1Mbps for free users. Free users can also only use four of the company’s 30 servers, meaning it loses some of its benefit as a service for accessing geo-blocked content.

On the positive side, Browsec does have a slightly less concerning privacy policy, though the company admits it will still “share anonymous data in aggregated form with third parties, including its affiliates, advertisers and other current or prospective business partners.”

6. Hotspot Shield

Like Browsec, Hotspot Shield offers both a free and a paid version. The free version has more features than Browsec. In addition to the standard VPN capabilities, the add-on also offers ad blocking, tracker blocking, cookie blocking, and malware protection.

All the virtual server locations are included in the free package. If you want access to the premium locations, you will need to pay for HotSpot Shield. The free version also has unlimited bandwidth.

Because the company makes its money from paying users, the privacy policy is robust. Hotspot Shield is not going to sell your data. Lastly, Hotspot Shield is extremely user-friendly. Unlike many other VPN add-ons for Firefox, you don’t need to create an account before you can start using the service.

While Hotspot Shield can be used for free, there are several benefits to getting a premium plan. Use this link to save up to 76% off a Hotspot Shield plan!

7. ExpressVPN

We will conclude with the best paid Firefox VPN. In our opinion, it’s ExpressVPN. An annual plan will cost you $8.32 per month.

It has 148 VPN locations, a kill switch, split tunneling, and zero-knowledge DNS, none of which are available on the six free plans we looked at. ExpressVPN also comes with privacy safeguards, support for multiple VPN protocols (OpenVPN with TCP/UDP, SSTP, L2TP/IPsec, and PPTP), and AES-256 encryption.

Most importantly, ExpressVPN keeps no logs. It will never track your IP address, browsing history, traffic destination, traffic metadata, or DNS queries. Use this link to get 3 FREE months when signing up for one year with ExpressVPN!

Which Is the Best Free VPN for Firefox?

Using a free VPN means you’re going to be making compromises. You’ll end up sacrificing speed, features, or privacy.

Today, the best free VPN for Firefox is HotSpot Shield. It forces you to make the fewest number of compromises and manages to deliver a reasonably premium experience.

If you’re still not sure why free VPNs are a terrible idea, read our article to learn more.

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