Why has Facebook flagged searches of chicken soup as 'child sexual abuse'?

Social media platform Facebook has flagged searches for "chicken soup" as suspicious for possible association with child sexual abuse materials.

Upon searching on the platform for a typical "get well soon" dish, other results appear. Immediately a statement comes up: "Child sexual abuse is illegal - We think that your search might be associated with child sexual abuse. Child sexual abuse or viewing sexual imagery of children can lead to imprisonment and other severe personal consequences. This abuse causes extreme harm to children and searching and viewing such material adds to that harm."

According to UK-based NGO Safeguarding and Child Protection Association, this warning appears because distributors of child sexual abuse images use those keywords as coded language to post on social media without a trace.

Talking in codes

US media reported that using generic terms with the same initials, C.P., a common abbreviation for child pornography, helps peddlers of pedophilic content evade detection tools by social media companies and allows the exploitative content to remain on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter).

“Sometimes they used generic terms with the initials ‘CP’, a common abbreviation for ‘child pornography’ and code like ‘caldo de pollo’, which means ‘chicken soup’ in Spanish,” the organization said, citing US media outlets.

Though it is unclear why this specific term was used, Facebook recognized a pattern and issued a warning in its place.

Danielle Greyman-Kennard contributed to this report.