Money. Identity. Technology.
Follow the money. Find the decision.
Shared safety signals passed between participating firms
A Tech Coalition programme through which participating companies share signals concerning online child sexual exploitation and abuse.
The 2025 transparency report describes Meta sharing signals followed by investigation and action at Cash App and Xbox. These are the operators’ reported outcomes; the investigation did not obtain the underlying case files.
Programme rules address recourse and removal of information that is no longer relevant. Whether a correction actually travels through all recipients and restores an account requires a separate operational record. The case study does not establish a connection to Steam removals.
Lantern → Lantern participating companies
Effective interval unknown; public record observed 9 September 2026.
2024 report requires appeals/recourse, removal of signals no longer applicable or relevant, and notification to Tech Coalition. This is an existing remedy/removal process; downstream recipient notification, reopening and export correction remain unestablished.
Lantern → Lantern participating companies
Effective interval unknown; public record observed 9 September 2026.
Rules require manual review before upload and recipient investigation before own enforcement. Lantern says it does not facilitate automated enforcement based on signals. Safeguards are stated requirements, not independently audited compliance.
Lantern signal taxonomy → Lantern
Effective interval unknown; public record observed 9 September 2026.
Uploads need official tag and review/severity context. Taxonomy supports policy investigations, not legal determinations; supplemental tags cannot stand alone. No general political-speech/payments scope inferred.
Tech Coalition → Lantern
Effective interval unknown; public record observed 9 September 2026.
Programme gives Tech Coalition application/compliance administration and database-access authority; legal agreement follows acceptance. Executed agreement and individual votes not obtained.
Lantern → Lantern participating companies
Effective interval unknown; public record observed 9 September 2026.
2025 report says companies may delete only signals they uploaded. Does not prove no administrator can remove signals. Aggregate removals do not identify error corrections or reinstatements.
Lantern → Worldwide financial eligibility — receive only
Announcement 14 May 2026; individual enrolment dates unknown.
14 May 2026 announcement extends individually evaluated eligibility worldwide, prioritizing P2 P payments; receive-only. Eligibility is not actual enrolment of every institution.
Lantern → Lantern financial pilot
August 2024–first half 2025; exact days unknown. Accountpublished 17 July 2025.
Reports August 2024–first half 2025 pilot: Cash App,MEGA,Meta,PayPal,Snap,Western Union;1935 signals,108 financial investigations, some ongoing. Investigations/reports are not convictions; full report not obtained.
Block → Lantern
Document 10 September 2025; use interval unknown.
Block publication confirms active Cash App participation and investigator use to assess detection/product/risk controls. Does not independently confirm 18-account case; overall NCMEC counts are not Lantern totals.
The old /lantern/ route failed in the reader; the site's actual /programs/lantern/ route succeeded. The financial-expansion reader timed out once; an ordinary GET substitute succeeded. Root's closed BSR PDF GET failure was not retried; its selected reader passages remain under the separate rights packet's custody. No private account or dataset was accessed.
Read the research & sources ↗Precise supported relations are: Tech Coalition/member funding of Lantern without allocated amounts; Meta's in-kind hosting; Tech Coalition admission, access and programme-standard administration; participants' manual signal selection and shared taxonomy development; and recipients' own investigation and policy decisions. The 18-account outcome must remain attributed to the operator. No individual member's veto, mandatory recipient sanction, government membership, or donor instruction is established.
Read the research & sources ↗Original: lantern-report2025.pdf,836595 bytes,SHA256f6667366d192a4582ab5d6e6ea2115a1772ca3312229a4e48bdc18b68d21bc5d. Hubble's lantern.md carries broader report scope and numerical discrepancies. Do not treat both readings as independent evidentiary origins.
Read the research & sources ↗A local dataset refresh is not itself an account restoration. The inspected code addresses fetched signal state and opinions. It supplies no evidence of Lantern-specific reversal of Cash App closures, Xbox restrictions or any Steam action. This is a boundary on the current evidence, not a repository-wide claim that no related software could implement restoration.
Read the research & sources ↗Lantern: operational signals, programme control and financial-account decisions ↗
Tech Coalition → reports member-supported programme funding → Lantern
Reportingyear 2024; funding interval unspecified.
Reported by the cited source
2024 report says participation is free and Tech Coalition and members fully fund Lantern. No allocated amount, payment ledger, individual contribution or donor instruction established.
Meta → provides hosting in kind, according to reports → Lantern
Reportingyears 2024/2025; exact interval unknown.
Reported by the cited source
Meta supplies ThreatExchange hosting in kind. No monetary valuation, executed hosting rights or editorial veto over individual signals established.
Tech Coalition → administers entry, compliance and database access → Lantern
Effective interval unknown; public record observed 9 September 2026.
Programme gives Tech Coalition application/compliance administration and database-access authority; legal agreement follows acceptance. Executed agreement and individual votes not obtained.
Lantern signal taxonomy → supplies required investigation labels → Lantern
Effective interval unknown; public record observed 9 September 2026.
Uploads need official tag and review/severity context. Taxonomy supports policy investigations, not legal determinations; supplemental tags cannot stand alone. No general political-speech/payments scope inferred.
Lantern → requires review and own-policy decisions → Lantern participating companies
Effective interval unknown; public record observed 9 September 2026.
Rules require manual review before upload and recipient investigation before own enforcement. Lantern says it does not facilitate automated enforcement based on signals. Safeguards are stated requirements, not independently audited compliance.
Lantern → requires recourse, relevant signals and TC notification → Lantern participating companies
Effective interval unknown; public record observed 9 September 2026.
2024 report requires appeals/recourse, removal of signals no longer applicable or relevant, and notification to Tech Coalition. This is an existing remedy/removal process; downstream recipient notification, reopening and export correction remain unestablished.
Lantern → limits participant deletion to own uploads → Lantern participating companies
Effective interval unknown; public record observed 9 September 2026.
2025 report says companies may delete only signals they uploaded. Does not prove no administrator can remove signals. Aggregate removals do not identify error corrections or reinstatements.
Lantern → reports receive-only financial pilot → Lantern financial pilot
August 2024–first half 2025; exact days unknown. Accountpublished 17 July 2025.
Reported by the cited source
Reports August 2024–first half 2025 pilot: Cash App,MEGA,Meta,PayPal,Snap,Western Union;1935 signals,108 financial investigations, some ongoing. Investigations/reports are not convictions; full report not obtained.
Lantern → announced worldwide eligibility expansion → Worldwide financial eligibility — receive only
Announcement 14 May 2026; individual enrolment dates unknown.
14 May 2026 announcement extends individually evaluated eligibility worldwide, prioritizing P2 P payments; receive-only. Eligibility is not actual enrolment of every institution.
Reported Meta → financial/Xbox case → generated shared Meta signals, operator reports → Lantern
Case timing unknown; reportfor 2025.
Reported by the cited source
Case study says Meta shared signals through Lantern. Private signals and underlying case file not inspected.
Lantern → informed case investigation, operator reports → Block
Case timing unknown; reportfor 2025.
Reported by the cited source
Shared signals reportedly informed Block identification of 18 Cash App accounts suspected of CSAM sales/purchases. Operator account, not inspected underlying records.
Block → reports investigative use through Cash App → Lantern
Document 10 September 2025; use interval unknown.
Reported by the cited source
Block publication confirms active Cash App participation and investigator use to assess detection/product/risk controls. Does not independently confirm 18-account case; overall NCMEC counts are not Lantern totals.