imo announces stronger ‘security layer’ to stop tech-savvy criminals

In view of increasing cyber risks and threats, instant communication platform imo has added new features to enhance its security protection system, inclusive of an anti-fraud mechanism, the company has announced.

In Bangladesh, according to it, an imo team is working on removing any objectionable content in order to guarantee that any reported content can be processed within 60 seconds on average.

A news release on new imo features says the platform has ramped up efforts in combating objectionable content that violates its policies and has further expanded its content moderation team.

It has reportedly hired more than 130 Bangladeshis in the first half of 2021 in addition to its existing content moderation team of over 3,000 employees.

“Ensuring content compliance is among our top priorities. We developed strict community policies and guidelines in full compliance with local laws and cultures to fight against objectionable content,” says Christopher Hsu, Vice President of imo.

In 2021, he has mentioned, the company has removed a total of 51 million objectionable posts and 800,000 accounts. “Among them, a total of 35 million public content were removed before they were viewed.”

Imo maintains that it encourages users to report any prohibited content and behaviors that they see on the app.

The company has recently launched an awareness campaign in Bangladesh to advocate responsible use of social media.

“While we have built a 24x7 multi-step content moderation process supported by AI [artificial intelligence] to identify and moderate any inappropriate content, our system can only detect public content automatically,” adds Mr Christopher Hsu.

For private chats, he explains, “our team can only rely on user reports to stop the misbehavior as all private chats are encrypted. That’s why we launched this campaign to strongly encourage our users to report any misbehavior they see on the platform so we can take prompt actions.”

Imo’s new anti-fraud security system primarily provides a ‘Security Reminder’ every time an imo user receives a verification code, states the release, adding that the reminder targets to prevent the users from sharing the codes with anyone else.

The new system is said to disable URL previews and links shared by random users who are not connected as mutual friends.

Furthermore, ‘a security reminder will be displayed on the chat page to warn users about such one-way friends who are not in their contact list, so the user may remain cautious and does not share any personal information,’ details the company.

Moreover, to prevent hacking, imo says it will now provide a security reminder to users when there is an attempt to log in to their accounts on multiple devices and clearly notify users to NOT share their verification code with anybody else.

The newly added devices will also be restricted from changing numbers associated with user accounts or deleting accounts, the release has pointed out.

“While it is a continual battle with increasingly tech-savvy criminals, we are determined to keep strengthening our investment in this area and help solve this long-term challenge together with our industry peers and relevant authorities,” says the top official of the company.

Mr Christopher Hsu has pledged that “imo will continue to devote significant resources and technologies to keep our community safe and healthy.”

“Our objective has always been and remains to become the best instant messaging platform for our Bangladeshi users.”