Random people started sharing child pornography on my matrix server, what are my options?
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DO NOT call the police. They will confiscate the server as evidence, and lakking any other suspect, you will be their primary lead. Police aren't about convictions or justice, they want to consider a case solved.
By law, you are not liable. But because of law enforcement incentives, it will absolutely become your problem.
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I second this opinion. The parties responsible absolutely need to be held accountable but due to the severe nature of the crime you absolutely have to protect yourself.
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Yeah, I'd dban the drives and everything.
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Legally, the platform isn't liable for what the users do on it. But I wouldn't want to test that in court.
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That doesn't count for this kind of crime.
It's not even certain whether or not it applies at all for fediverse systems.
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statutes that protect [...] people trying to cooperate with law enforcement,
I don't know exactly about France, but such a concept is rare in Europe in general (except England), and even more so when it comes to possession of such materials.
In Germany, I know the tolerance is absolutely ZERO, and the excuses too. You can carry the material to the police to deliver it, and with that you have proven that you were in possession one second before. Private investigators or journalists have tried to do reports about the topic, seriously and neutrally without any doubt, but got punished for possession then.
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You can try this https://www.iwf.org.uk/en/uk-report/
I would suggest doing it with the tor browser as to not be associated with it in any way.
Sadly without the actual content and giving your server away for forensics, this might not go anywhere. But! It can help build a case, especially if any of the pii (ip, username, etc) you provide is already being investigated.
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Out of curiosity, did you host your server as a public one that is advertised as open to all? Or did you just not set access controls and someone just found it?
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No, it was not advertised nor listed anywhere. They found it
