Countering Claims From the NCRI Report

There was a recent report by NCRI that includes numerous claims made against Wizz. Many of the facts and data points included in the document are either wrong or inaccurate.

We want to provide accurate information to our dedicated users, colleagues, partners and other stakeholders. Here is a brief fact sheet that addresses a number of misrepresentations in the NCRI report.

1. Claim: Wizz is the third-most prevalent, but fastest-rising social media platform for sextortion of minors (pg. 6).

Fact: We are not aware of any successful extortion attempts that occurred while communicating on the Wizz app.

One key feature of sextortion is that blackmailers request sexually explicit images. Wizz does not allow such photos to be transmitted. Blackmailers attempt to circumvent this by luring users off of Wizz and into private conversations or onto other social media apps. As a result, Wizz has recently instituted a policy of banning unverified users who request social media accounts of other users. Wizz employs AI moderation to scan for such requests. Stay on Wizz to stay safe

2. Claim: In a poll of 500 English-speaking Wizz users, 40% reported being sextorted on Wizz. Among those victims, 77% of them are minors (pg. 6).

Fact: Concern #1: The poll was not taken using a representative audience of Wizz users. Reddit polls are subject to self-selection bias, meaning that only those who choose to participate will have their opinions reflected. Indeed, the Reddit poll administrator admits to possible inaccuracies in Reddit polls on r/Sextortion, stating “I think you’re right about the polls. There may be a small handful (under 5% of respondents) that vote for the worst outcome to scare people into paying.” (Reddit).

Concern #2: The poll fails to verify respondents. Was it a teen or an adult or a bot who just voted? Was it a Wizz user or not? No effort made to verify whether the users who responded to the survey were in fact Wizz users. ThisReddit poll discusses the flaws of Reddit polls.

Concern #3: The poll fails to calculate the results correctly. The Reddit pollshows 144 of 504 respondents answering in the affirmative. This calculates to 29%, not 40%.

Additional Concerns: We have other concerns with this method of polling, including:

• Potential for Multiple Responses: Reddit’s polling mechanisms may not adequately prevent users from voting multiple times, either through different accounts or other means, which can skew results.

• Informal Setting: The casual and informal nature of Reddit means that users might not take polls as seriously as they would in a more formal research setting.

3. Claim: Some victims report being targeted by sextortion within minutes of joining the app, suggesting that criminals have saturated Wizz (pg. 6).

Fact: This post has been deleted and is cited as key evidence in the “report” by NCRI. There are no mentions of Wizz in the comments section.

4. Claim: In the Google Play Store and the App Store, dozens of minors have reported that they were coerced into producing self-generated child sexual exploitation material (SG-CSEM) and blackmailed on Wizz (pg. 6).

Fact: The footnote directs the reader to the Google Play store. In the reviews, there are no blackmail claims made. On the Apple Store reviews, there are two blackmail claims, but again, those situations happened when the review author moved to another messaging platform like Snapchat or Instagram.

5. Claim: There is a high frequency of complaints that the app is serving pornographic ads to minors (pg. 6).

Fact: We take a zero-tolerance approach to offensive content and negative behavior of any kind on our platform. This includes advertisements displayed on the Wizz app.

Advertising on Wizz is done through AppLovin Max and Unity, the major players used by almost all mobile applications in the industry. On these ad networks, all illegal, hateful, violent, sexual, political, or otherwise inappropriate advertisements are blocked from being published within the Wizz.

In the past, Wizz has encountered some issues with suggestive images from these networks, but not pornography. In addition to the measures above, Wizz has recently implemented a secondary layer of moderation whereby any inappropriate ads that are not correctly flagged and blocked by these providers go through a secondary screening through our service provider Geoedge.

6. Claim: Despite the most popular sextortion scripts being publicly accessible since 2021, their text has not yet been blacklisted by Instagram, Wizz, or Snapchat.

Fact: Wizz is deeply committed to the detection and removal of individuals attempting to execute scams using the Wizz platform. Wizz uses facial recognition technology to run all new users’ faces against an internal record of banned users, including known scammers and the images they use to “catfish” others. Wizz has an extensive library of banned language that goes beyond just prohibiting users from making explicit comments. Wizz also proactively prevents unverified users from requesting another’s social media profiles including Instagram and Snapchat (apps with less stringent moderation).

Wizz has been proactively identifying and banning various patterns and scripts, including for sextortion, used by scammers for years. When Wizz became aware of the sextortion scripts, we immediately banned their contents AND users. We assigned a colleague to dedicate their time to monitoring specifically for new and emerging threats to Wizz users. We have a dedicated team of 20 full-time employees reviewing the reports on our users, and constantly giving feedback to our automated solution partners on how to improve the moderation

We employ the latest technology to ensure a safe and positive experience for users. As part of Wizz’s Comprehensive Safety Ecosystem, we oversee written content moderation, which is handled by Besedo, the industry’s best-in-class tool that automatically examines text and actively filters and flags suspicious behavior. We are aware of these scams and our content moderation is always evolving.

7. Claim: Victims have reported being targeted nearly immediately upon account creation (in some cases within ten minutes), suggesting the platform is saturated by sextortion activity (pg. 15).

Fact: Wizz is not mentioned on https://www.reddit.com/r/Sextortion/comments/18679it/help/ as suggested by the footnote. Also, see Claim 3 above.

The report also makes several recommendations that we would like to address.

Recommendation #2: Wizz should improve the in-app reporting process to quickly and effectively ban sextortion accounts. It goes on to say that “Wizz, and other platforms where financial sextortion occurs should follow suit and ensure that all reports of sextortion are adjudicated by a human moderator within hours” (pg. 22–23).

Fact: Wizz already does this. We have clear processes for quickly addressing negative behavior.

a. User reported situations: For rare situations that fall outside our clear boundaries, Wizz has a dedicated 20-person resolution team that reviews flagged user content in real-time to decide whether an offense should result in the suspension or banning of a user. This group reviews around 7,000 reporters each day.

b. Wizz’s Removal/Banning Policies and Practices

• Banning is one of the measures Wizz takes to protect our users from harmful content and behaviors.

• We take extensive measures to protect our users: Wizz is one of very few apps using Apple Device Check SDK technology.

• There is currently no process for reinstatement once a user is banned.

• Wizz bans ~4,000 users per day, and has banned ~2% of the individuals who have tried to access the Wizz platform.

• Better safe than sorry: our aggressive banning policies may keep some legitimate, well-intentioned users off our platform.

Recommendation #3: Instagram and Snapchat should proactively detect the sextortion scripts and investigate any users who attempt to use them. Additionally, this recommendation states that “Identical scripts are being repeatedly deployed at scale on Instagram, Snapchat, and Wizz by accounts linked to sextortion”(pg. 23).

Fact: Wizz goes beyond monitoring for scam-related scripts alone. Using Besedo, the industry’s leading tool that automatically examines text and actively filters and flags suspicious behavior, Wizz bans patterns of content that may be used by scammers. Not all scammers work from the same script — that’s why we use a tool with algorithms that continuously improve to protect users from new and emerging threats.

Recommendation #6: Wizz, and its Paris-based parent company Voodoo, must take immediate action to secure the platform from endemic sextortion (pg. 23).

• Sextortion on Wizz is pervasive and dangerous.

• The app’s design, seemingly akin to a Tinder-like interface for minors, has fostered an environment ripe for the rampant spread of sextortion.

Fact: We created Wizz to establish a safe space for young people to build community and connect with new friends around the world. We have no higher priority than the safety of our users. When our users are safe and protected from harmful content, they build stronger connections, which are precisely the kinds of relationships that we seek to foster.

Wizz takes a zero-tolerance approach to offensive content and negative behavior of any kind on our platform, including scams, pornography, inappropriate images, hate speech, and other content that violates our terms of service. We employ leading technology to ensure positive behaviors and user experiences that are both safe, positive and productive. These efforts include:

• Age Verification: Wizz was the pioneer in mandatory age verification upon registration on social apps. We partner with Yoti whose industry-leading AI-trained biometric technology validates age claims.
  – This tool also allows Wizz to segment users by age, plus or minus one year only, throughout their time on our platform.
  - Yoti holds the most stringent ISO 27001 certification and continues to be audited every year.
  - It is also certified to SOC 2 Type 2 for its internationally recognized technical and organizational security controls by a top four auditing company.
  - Yoti also holds the Age Verification Certificate of Compliance, issued by the BBFC and is certified to specification PAS:1296 regarding age checking.

• Written content moderation: Besedo is the industry’s leading tool that automatically examines text and actively filters and flags suspicious behavior. This tool is trained to enforce Wizz’s policies, and its algorithms continuously improve to protect users from emerging harmful content.

• Visual content moderation: We employ SightEngine’s technology to protect users from inappropriate photos and videos. SightEngine is able to identify offensive content with an extremely high level of accuracy, with response times of approximately 230 milliseconds. We have clear processes for quickly addressing and banning users engaging in negative behaviors.

• User-reported situations: For rare situations that fall outside our clear boundaries, Wizz has a dedicated 20-person team that reviews flagged user content in real-time to decide whether an offense should result in the suspension or banning of a user.

We are deeply committed to continuous improvement on our platform to ensure the highest level of safety for our users.