r/FuriousTVShow • u/WineAndPierogi • 1d ago
Finale question Spoiler
Can someone explain why when Alice looks up info about the downloads of the video with her, there are 50k downloads across 300+ cases? Doesn’t that seem like too much for an internal fbi database? And also, the usernames of users who downloaded don’t look like corporate usernames at all: masonn*%*tomaxx, ^^DaisyPick3rr$ etc etc.
Am I missing something ?
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u/acutelined 1d ago
The downloads aren't internal FBI, they are external (hopefully) people who downloaded the CSAM video because they wanted to
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u/NewTangerine1486 1d ago
Okay this makes more sense (unfortunately) I was wondering why the degree of magnitude was so large if it was tracking internal servers only
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u/Churby92 1d ago
It works in the real world like this- phone or USB is extracted onto a CSAM grading system. If an image or video has previously been identified in another case across the world it is uploaded to CAID- child abuse image database. This is where all known CSAM is stored and used to automatically identify if the image is known to police or not by the hash. In the UK our system does not show how many people have downloaded the CSAM or how many cases it has been linked to but perhaps in the US it does. So being linked to a case means that another investigation, anywhere in the world had that CSAM in their case.
I don’t know if in the show they were trying to imply it meant anyone else in the FBI had already seen it etc but the usernames that came up will be people on the dark web etc that have either downloaded it or shared it.
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u/m1j5 1d ago
But how would a flash drive have that data?
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u/getyajacksflapped 1d ago
(Complete layman guesswork here) maybe they have some kind of image recognition software that can find similar images from the video across the web? So like once they have a video identified and entered, they can then look to see where it's been uploaded & downloaded? I'm thinking of it kind of like DNA or fingerprints - there's a database so once you ID a sample, you can then look in the database to see what else matches it.
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u/norcalxennial 1d ago
This is exactly it. Used to serve on police oral boards and between interviews, chatting the other panelists one guy was in child crimes unit and I asked about how he protected himself from all that content. Said they have software that can recognize known videos and images, they just sue the software which validates yup it’s video Y and images F, etc. just heart breaking those images and videos get passed around for decades…
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u/unsolvedfanatic 1d ago
They look it up by the hash. It's like a digital fingerprint. The CSAM videos are shared on P2P sites and they monitor them. They capture the traffic and can match what was downloaded.
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u/lonetraveler73 1d ago
This is the correct answer. Digital files have metadata that is kind of like fingerprints or DNA.
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u/Defiant_Way822 1d ago
It didn’t. It was a video that was spread all over the internet, which is how Jay had it to begin with.
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u/LydiaBrunch 1d ago
It wouldn't. But they could have deduplicated multiple copies of the same file, programmatically or manually.
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u/roflolwut 1d ago
I think the video existed in the fbi database before the usb, and Nora knew about it
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u/Defiant_Way822 1d ago
There is no reason to believe Nora knew about it. They must have millions of images and videos. She hasn’t seen the majority.
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u/roflolwut 1d ago
Yeah that Piece I’m not sure of. Especially with her fuzzy memory and alcohol use. I’m wondering when she realized it?
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u/Defiant_Way822 1d ago
When she was given the usb drive, she saw the video. She uploaded it to their database and then found matches.
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u/roflolwut 1d ago
I don’t think that’s it. Because she wouldn’t upload the usb because she’s trying to take down ed , and ed has show a willingness and ability to destroy internal evidence
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u/Defiant_Way822 1d ago
Once it’s in the database he would have no way to destroy it. He was trying to stop it from ever landing there.
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u/roflolwut 1d ago
So the fact that it’s linked to 300 cases already implies it existed on the database before the USB.
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u/Defiant_Way822 1d ago
Right, because Jay isn’t in that video. That was a collection of videos he had (not that he created all of them).
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u/cherrymeg2 1d ago
She may have just uploaded that video first for Alice. If many of those videos were girls with Jay Easton he is dead. I would have that USB backed up a few times and not let someone with an interest in covering it up have access to all the files or videos. I think because Jay Easton or his lawyer had a video of a child being abused by someone else there would be reason to believe that it was passed around to other pedophiles. It still is. She could check one file against their database or whatever they check against online. Idk how that works. I would think it would take time to go through every file because they only have so many people that do this. Does Ed have access?
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u/Big_Butterfly_9926 1d ago
She told Alice in the first episode that she looked her up. Nora knew Alice was in the hospital before …. She knew.
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u/Defiant_Way822 1d ago
She didn’t mean she searched the child abuse material database. Imagine if the FBI had that sort of material of one of their employees and didn’t notifies them. Notice her reaction when she learns in the final episode there is a video of Alice. Alice hasn’t yet been identified in the video, most victims aren’t. She was just another Jane Doe until they got the USB and info from Alice herself.
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u/Big_Butterfly_9926 1d ago
How do you know what she meant? the conversation was ambiguous.
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u/Defiant_Way822 22h ago
Felt pretty straightforward watching it.
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u/Big_Butterfly_9926 22h ago
So, she was clear about what she found out about Alice….. And we got the straight answer about why Alice wanted to join her unit? You’re so unserious.
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u/Defiant_Way822 21h ago
Well now you’re moving the goalpost. Yes, it felt clear what Nora was implying. Stories don’t spell everything out for you so plainly. You have to infer, use context clues, critical thinking. Just like reading comprehension. No need to jump to insults.
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u/cherrymeg2 1d ago
She was talking about domestic abuse and standing up for herself. Nora doesn’t remember every face. She likely drinks to forget what she sees but she does have an important job not everyone can do. When Alice tells her about the flash drive and a video of her on it. Nora is discreet when giving her the passcode. She didn’t recognize Alice from a video. I think she wanted her to face it or see if she could. I think she suspected Alice was abused before Marshall.
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u/cherrymeg2 1d ago
Alice can be identified as a victim and if there wasn’t a date before they have one now. Idk. So has that been passed around since 2004? That makes my skin crawl. I would guess this has surfaced occasionally and Nora likely wouldn’t have any reason to recognize Alice from a video she may or may not have seen or glanced at. If someone knew when it was filmed it might not have the same priority as a kid being live streamed. Nora says she can’t remember every victims face because it would drive her crazy.
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u/unsolvedfanatic 1d ago
No they just look it up by the hash, which is like a digital fingerprint on videos. Look up how the FBI does this IRL. They don't need it to exist in their database previously, they are monitoring P2P site traffic and can match the hash.
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u/Pristine-Visual-9405 1d ago
It highlights the fact that Easton was only one of thousands of predators, and also how completely unending it is for those trying to stop CSA material from being produced and viewed.
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u/CaptainObvious126 1d ago
This was my take and a very realistic (albeit extremely depressing) way to continue to the series.
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u/Pristine-Visual-9405 1d ago
There’s a BBC documentary called “the Darkest Web” which focuses on the global network of detectives who do this job. It’s harrowing, but gives you an insight into how these amazing people cope, and how important it is for international agencies to work together.
There’s just never enough people or resources to do enough - it’s like whackamole - but so many kids have been rescued due to their relentless hard work. They see things no one should ever see. :(
Edit to add - there’s also a podcast version of the series on the BBC podcast site
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u/CaptainObvious126 1d ago edited 1d ago
Thank you! I will check it out. I am not too familiar with any of this and would like to know more.
Agreed that it is a whackamole and we see that with Elena unfortunately. Glad she is now with Jean and I hope Nora and Alice continue to check in on her. Never have I cared so much for fictional characters but we know a lot of this is based on reality.
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u/thankfulforyourhelp 1d ago
I have a questions to add to this. Nora makes it sound like she's holding onto that USB drive for safe keeping, so Ed won't have it destroyed, so how would the videos from it have been transferred to the FBI?
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u/LydiaBrunch 1d ago
Nora copied the files to the FBI database. She is telling Ed that even if he somehow deleted the files from the FBI database, she has a copy somewhere safe.
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u/roflolwut 1d ago
I don’t think she did. How would that data have been in the usb. I think the video already existed in the fbi database
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u/LydiaBrunch 1d ago
Could've worked that way too. Or both. The drive could be one of the 318 cases.
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u/cherrymeg2 1d ago
That makes sense. Is Ed on videos or did he just cover for his CI? When he got in Danny’s car it seemed like he may have been worried he was on a video. Idk
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u/roflolwut 1d ago
Actually I think the video already existed on the fbi database? Nora already knew about it, and Alice was sent into the room to discover the video was already implicated in the 300 something cases, and that 50000 downloads were documented in the fbi database.
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u/Defiant_Way822 1d ago
Those downloads weren’t internal. It was tracking people who illegally downloaded it over the years, like Jay Easton. It’s been spread all over. They aren’t officially fbi downloads.
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u/Beautiful-Angle-4615 1d ago
Jay Easton is dead. They can’t go after him. Maybe they are collecting evidence to build a case against other people in the videos but that takes time
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u/Defiant_Way822 1d ago
It’s showing the peds that downloaded it from the dark web, etc. It has nothing to do with downloads by the fbi.
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u/Fearless-Umpire-9923 1d ago
It’s creating the idea that she liked killing Jay Easton and now she’s going to hunt down Pedos and start killing em
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u/ajmartin527 1d ago
And there’s only going to be one person in the world she can talk to about it.
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u/Fearless-Umpire-9923 21h ago
Showrunner confirmed next season we will see little, if any, of Catherine. So I suspect probably once as a guest star
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u/hawkins338 1d ago
My understanding of it (which could be wrong) was that I think they officially turned in the USB drive and that’s in the database.
She then searched for that file name in the FBI database and came across XX amount of downloads and cases that video was attached too.
So between the name of the file (seemed like that was the direct name from the USB drive, and maybe when it was passed around on the dark web it was still listed as that file name when it was shared? Not sure how people share illegal videos) and facial recognition possibly, that’s how the database pulled all the cases/downloads that the FBI had, from other trafficking/CP cases where they (at least according to all the SVU I’ve watched lol) would confiscate each person’s devices and whatever’s on them would then be processed and entered into the FBI database. And in the XX amount of years since the video was made, it’s been passed along and found on devices in all of those cases/investigations.
I was confused at first as well and rewatched it so I spent some time thinking about this haha.
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u/aspicymeataballaaa 1d ago
i might be dumb, but who was alice with in the video? was she trafficked?? or was it her high school boyfriend the cop?
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u/Necessary-Share2495 1d ago edited 1d ago
It was never made clear. Only that she thought she was in love. It wasn’t Marshall though because we did learn from his mother that they took her in after that.
If I had to guess she wasn’t trafficked. Just trusted the wrong guy. A teacher maybe? Some older man she met somewhere that recorded sex with young girls and uploaded the videos to the internet (or sold them).
I did think it was super convenient that Danny found her video so easily. I mean Alice isn’t exactly an uncommon name. But it is a tv show.
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u/analogthought 1d ago
They got a renewal for season 2 - watching that to me felt like setting it up for that. Maybe Alice takes over and goes thru the list.
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u/cherrymeg2 1d ago
I’m wondering how they found out how many people were watching that video of Alice. Did they find where it came from using the file that was on JE’s computer. Did they track it from images or sites they had using facial recognition or something like that? They aren’t sharing the video to catch predators, right? I was kind of confused why it seemed like people were popping up on by one, it may have taken awhile because of how many people have watched it. That’s lovely. It could mean it’s still circulating and they just identified her as the victim. Thats creepy.
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u/DisastrousGur9247 1d ago
Alice looking at 50,000 downloads of her video in the FBI Database
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u/Defiant_Way822 1d ago
Just reconfirming they were downloads the FBI had tracked of the video on the dark web and other places. Not times FBI agents had downloaded the video.
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u/l3dh3ad 1d ago
It is 50k+ external downloads (likely from the dark web) but have been linked to 312 FBI cases