Paedophiles regroup on Facebook
Cyber sleuths call this modus operandi the ‘flickering model’
By : r. ayyappan
Update: 2015-11-28 05:49 GMT
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Like indestructible shape-shifting android assassins in Hollywood flicks, paedophiles seem to be a frustratingly resurgent lot. Barely a week after the cyber police declared that they had busted the ‘kochusundarikal’ Facebook group, voyeurs have re-grouped with a vengeance in a similar-sounding Facebook group ‘kochusundari,’ where they post obscene comments under the pictures of children.
What has confounded cyber sleuths is the re-appearance of the content found in the busted FB group in the new one, ‘kochusundari.’ “Some of the pictures we had found in ‘kochusundarikal’ have found their way into the new FB community. It means that the gang still thrives,” a top police source said.
This time the voyeurs come across as more combative than secretive. They know they are being tracked but it looks like they are keen to engage the police in an elaborate cat and mouse game.
Here is the introductory declaration by the administrators: “Friends, we will stand together. We will take out the pornographic content posted here as there are perverts hell-bent on reporting us. But we will keep uploading them intermittently. So keep in touch.”
Cyber sleuths call this modus operandi the ‘flickering model’. The group members put up pictures and, after some fleeting moments that allow members to pass filthy comments, take them out. “On and off, on and off, it goes,” the source said.
Such a model prevents the mass reporting of FB users against the group. Mass reporting is needed for FB to look into the complaints and block the child-related content.
“Since they keep removing the pictures, there will be no proof that the group had indulged in criminal conduct,” said a top police source.
The source also said that the Operation Big Daddy had shut down only two of the three sites it had identified as indulging in child-related content.
‘This could be the third one,” the source said. The fact is, the new FB community began operations on November 23, days after the arrest of the supposed kingpins of the online sex trade, strengthening the suspicion that the paedophile gang is more entrenched than the police had thought.
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