(C) Alec Muffett's DropSafe blog.
Author Name: Alec Muffett
This story was originally published on allecmuffett.com. [1]
License: CC-BY-SA 3.0.[2]


Why there's no 'silver bullet' for ridding the web of revenge porn

2017-03-16 08:58:00+00:00

Franks also worries about "sexist and regressive beliefs about 'proper' sexual behaviour", as well as the "varying levels of technological literacy" found in police teams, which she says can "often translate into hostile or indifferent law enforcement responses".

In August 2015 Saunders acknowledged that figures were hard to come by, but was confident the new laws would make a difference. "The new offence has only been in force since April so it is too early for us to be able to say what impact this is having on the number of prosecutions," she said. "But anecdotally we are seeing more of these cases being brought to us by the police and it is clear that the new legislation is having an impact."

The law might have been slow to catch up, but it is now being strenuously tested. In June 2015 a revenge porn case in the Netherlands reached a legal deadlock after Facebook failed to provide police with information about an anonymous user who uploaded a sexually explicit video of a woman. The woman, who identified herself only as Chantal, had originally sued the social network after a video of her performing a sex act was posted in late January.

A Dutch court ordered Facebook to hand over the account details of the person who posted the revenge porn, but Facebook said all detailed relating to the user had been erased 90 days after it was deleted. Last week the Amsterdam District Court ordered Facebook to hand over any remaining information or have an "independent expert" access its servers.

The social network

For Facebook, revenge porn remains a major issue. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has argued his company is "committed to doing better" in its response to hate speech. The social network recently launched a suicide prevention initative to better monitor vulnerable and potentially suicidal users and report worrying posts. Its Community Standards reflect this narrative: "We want people to feel safe when using Facebook," it states.

As for revenge porn, Facebook's community standards explain that moderators "remove any content that threatens or promotes sexual violence". Its definition of sexual exploitation -- which is also banned on the site -- includes "solicitation of sexual material... [and] threats to share intimate images". All official statements relating to sexual exploitation, non-consensual pornography or other explicit imagery refer to it as "abusive content". Facebook's Community Standards warn that any content that "threatens of promotes sexual violence or exploitation" will be removed.

But the victims of Facebook-based revenge porn tell a different story.

"Because very few laws against non-consensual pornography existed until very recently, we don't have robust reporting data on the phenomenon" Mary Anne Franks, Law professor, University of Miami School of Law

"Facebook were okay to a point," Megan, another victim of revenge porn, told WIRED. "When I complained and reported the images, they came down within a couple of days, sometimes longer when they got loaded on weekends.". What they didn't do, however, was delete the offending account.

Megan's ex-girlfriend initially told her the photos had been uploaded when someone stole her phone. But after a failed attempt to get back together with Megan, the photos reappeared online. "When it first happened I contacted her and she removed them, and swore the others had been deleted. But two weeks later the same thing happened again with more photos," she said. The cycle continued, on and off, for eight weeks -- a period Megan describes as "the worst eight weeks of my life".

82 per cent of victims have 'significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning'

It might employ teams of moderators working around the clock, but Facebook's system for removing offensive content is far from perfect. Despite numerous complaints to the social network, Megan said the cycle only stopped after she contacted her ex-girlfriend's family in a last-ditch attempt to stem the flow of the images.

This is not just an issue for Facebook. Twitter banned revenge porn in March 2015 after 'the Fappening', where a number of stolen celebrity nude photos, which originated on 4chan, were spread on Reddit and Imgur. Reddit followed Twitter's lead, with CEO Ellen Pao banning revenge porn in July 2015. The decision was met with with a campaign of trolling and harassment from Reddit users. Pao resigned eight days later after receiving "sickening abuse".

The solution?

In response to these cases, Facebook told WIRED that it's constantly working on improving moderation, both generally and in cases of revenge porn. Although it couldn't comment on specifics to protect the anonymity of the victims, a spokesperson pointed to Facebook's Help Centre, which allows victims of emotional or domestic violence to report their ex or current partners. The spokesperson also said Facebook was working with charities including Women's Aid and the Revenge Porn Helpline to target non-consensual pornography on the platform.

But Franks said technology companies must put aside worries about user experience and focus on protecting vulnerable users. "The nature of non-consensual pornography is that once it's out there, it's very hard to remove. These companies must implement steps to deter unauthorised disclosures of private information before they happen". Pop-up warnings or algorithms that automatically detect sexually explicit imagery were both good options, Franks argued.

93 per cent of revenge porn victims suffer 'significant emotional distress'

"Whatever inconvenience these pre-emptive measures might impose on companies and users must be balanced against the wide-ranging and often irreversible harm caused by the unauthorised disclosure of intimate data."

Progress is being made. Franks said she was pleased that the likes of Facebook, Google, Reddit and Twitter had recently taken stands against consensual pornography, "acknowledging that sexual privacy is no less deserving of protection as other forms of privacy". But, she suggested, companies needed to do more than just announce "after the fact policies".

"Online harassment is not something that 'just happens'" Ann Olivarius, Senior partner, McAllister Olivarius

Olivarius suggested that social networks must "recognise that online harassment is not something that 'just happens'". "Their choices about how to run their platforms significantly shape behaviour," she said. "The services they design and policies they implement can either facilitate or discourage abuse. I'd like to see them make safety a priority, not only in official policies but across the design process." "There's no silver bullet to ending non-consensual pornography," Franks said. "Like domestic violence and sexual assault, non-consensual pornography is the product of a culture that does not view women as fully human and deserving of the same rights of bodily autonomy as men. It is not a matter of changing our laws or our technology or our culture; it is a matter of changing all of them."

Some names have been changed.
[END]

[1] URL: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/revenge-porn-facebook-social-media
[2] URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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