Fresh from its court victory against tech giant Meta, The Digital Law Company (TDLC) now faces another uphill battle — tracing who is behind the accounts and profiles linked to the online porn racket targeting local teens.
The court ruling gave Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp and Instagram, until Monday evening to hand over the first batch of information about the accounts — seemingly operated by the same person or people — to TDLC.
The network was involved in soliciting private and pornographic images of South African schoolchildren, which were uploaded through an anonymous platform and made public on six WhatsApp channels and 30 Instagram profiles.
TDLC — essentially digital media lawyer Emma Sadleir and her colleague Rorke Wilson — received a second load of data by Wednesday, as agreed.
“And now we are starting with the forensic investigation with the end aim being to help the victims firstly and then find the perpetrators and hold them to account,” Wilson told the Sunday Times.
He said they had been flooded with requests for help and to give talks at schools, and were battling to keep up with their workload.
We are inundated. We’re way too small to be dealing with all the stuff coming in
“We are inundated. We’re way too small to be dealing with all the stuff coming in,” Wilson said.
But while the company has been provided with the information it asked for, a great deal more digging is required. Wilson and Sadleir are also limited by the court order as to what they may do with the information. They are allowed only to make disclosures to law enforcement.
“Out of the information we received for 30 accounts, we have nine cellphone numbers. There are a few more IP addresses and device identifiers, so now we will start with serving subpoenas on the service providers to give us the user information,” Wilson said.
“Basically the court order bars us from publishing details of what we have been given, we can only use the information in the pursuit of justice.”
Wilson said he and Sadleir had managed to piece together enough information on one perpetrator to allow one complainant to open a criminal case, if they wish to do so.
“We have to be so careful in this situation because of the court order. But this is not the end, we will be using the momentum we’ve created to campaign for accountability.”
Wilson said they had already ascertained that several of the perpetrator accounts had neither a corresponding cellphone number nor email — a requirement when creating an account.
“So we are having to look into how that could possibly happen. There are also challenges with cellphone numbers that get recycled regularly and so often the information on them is old — or they are linked to a child with no credit record or further details.”
Wilson said the company was in the process of finding forensic investigators with the skills to take on the matter. They can only help victims who approach them to do so. Just “a few”, and one school, have so far done so.
Asked how many victims there are in total, Wilson said: “In one case there was a girl who was targeted multiple times. And a lot of them are from poorer schools in Johannesburg, where the kids don’t know where or how to reach out. But I reckon a conservative estimate would be at least 50.”
Digital forensics practitioner and cybercrime investigator Craig Pedersen said investigations into online offences were notoriously difficult, and applauded TDLC for its success in having Meta held to account.
“But there’s no guarantee that a broader investigation will lead to the apprehension of the culprit. Anyone can register for a prepaid SIM card and then throw it away. So even if you get a number and go through the networks to identify the person, getting an arrest in the end is a long shot,” Pedersen said.
“And then you can have an order for WhatsApp channels and Instagram accounts to be taken down, but there’s nothing stopping the perpetrators from creating new ones.”
Pedersen said South Africa’s laws “are archaic in terms of cybercrime” and he predicted a class action by South Africans against Meta.
“You have these big tech companies providing services to millions of people in South Africa, making enormous income from advertising, who are not interested in blocking content, claiming they don’t have a presence here and refuse to be held accountable to the laws of our land,” he said.
“In electronic crime speed is essential, and we have a six-to-eight weeks return of service on a subpoena and prosecutors that don’t know what an IP address is,” he said.
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