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Porn Spam on Google Maps

· 6 comments · 300 words · Viewed ~25,974 times

User Generated Content is great, innit? As a company, I want users to submit photos, so I don't have to do any content curation. Moderation? Nah mate, stick some AI on there to filter out anything offensive and we're golden.

*sigh*

What could this possibly mean? I searched for Loch Ness on Google Maps.

Screenshot of Loch Ness on Google Maps.

Oh! Hey! Someone's posted a 360 photosphere from the very centre of the Loch! Picture of a swimming pool.

Huh... That doesn't look like the beautiful Scottish countryside. I wonder what happens if I pan around...?

🚨 🍆 🚨

A naked dude.

(Redacted for his privacy and your comfort.)

It's pretty easy to upload spam to Google Maps. I suspect that whatever BIG DATA ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ALGORITHMS they have simply don't work on panoramic photos.

Anyway, I reported it - yay for doing unpaid labour for a megacorporation - and it has vanished.

The thing is, this isn't a mistake or a glitch. There's a user who literally enjoys repeatedly posting these photos to scenic locations.

I know the "wisdom of the crowds" means that large companies don't have to worry about bad actors⸮ But perhaps Google could spend a little of its time and money moderating the content it displays. If one determined user is able to gain this many views - what could a more malicious user accomplish?

Be seeing you!

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6 thoughts on “Porn Spam on Google Maps”

  3. Oo, it'd be neat if they used the satellite imagery in the tagged location for any image uploaded and flagged anything that was out-of-context.

    In the Loch Ness example, if the image wasn't of a lake or in a boat on a lake then.. quarantine the image!

    Not sure what the false positive rate would look like. I kinda want to give programming it up a try, but I feel like I have enough projects on the go to attempt this 😅

    Reply

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