Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

How to Fight Back Against ‘Revenge Porn’ | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Victims of revenge porn who are interested in suing their harassers may be able to get free legal assistance. Credit Brian Snyder/Reuters


Holly Jacobs says her “living nightmare” began in 2009.

That year, she was the victim of a uniquely modern attack, having discovered intimate photos and a video, along with her personal details posted online.

The material proliferated and the images were sent to a co-worker and her boss. She feared losing her job and being kicked out of graduate school, and she spent years on damage control.

“I can’t really say that it ever ended. I’m pretty sure that my images are still being posted, but I just stopped searching my name,” she said.

Ms. Jacobs is far from alone.

As the Center for Investigative Reporting revealed in March, thousands of Marine Corps women faced similar unwanted exposure when their photos were shared by active-duty and veteran Marines in a Facebook group that is now the subject of a Defense Department criminal investigation.

Celebrities are frequently subjected to such harassment, too, and the problem is serious enough on Facebook that the social network recently unveiled new tools to thwart it.

For victims, fighting against such attacks can take years and prove costly. In Ms. Jacobs’s case, the ordeal came to an end of sorts when she reached a legal settlement last summer, more than six years after it began.

Along the way, she launched the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, a nonprofit that offers help to other victims of non-consensual porn, a term advocates prefer to the more common “revenge porn” because many harassers have other motives.

Here’s a brief look at the advice she and others offer to women and men who find, or are threatened with, their most intimate images and videos being shared without their permission.

Seek help

The toll of nonconsensual porn can be severe, causing depression and post-traumatic stress. That’s why advocates say victims should seek out support from a trusted friend, partner, family member, teacher, counselor or therapist.

Ms. Jacobs had access to free counseling through her school, but many victims are not so fortunate. For them, the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative maintains a 24-hour crisis hotline, (844) 878-2274, that can serve as a starting point.

“We have counselors that are on the other end of that line to offer immediate counseling for the victim and then we take them through their options,” Ms. Jacobs said.

Document everything

Many victims want nothing more than for their intimate photos and videos to be destroyed. But advocates encourage them to preserve the information in case they plan future legal action.

She and others say victims should preserve evidence, including copies of the private images and videos, screen shots of search results that lead to them, webpages hosting them, and texts, emails and other communications.

Ms. Jacobs recommends consulting a lawyer to better understand what evidence might be useful.

Consider criminal action

Despite increasing awareness about the issue, many officials may still be unaware of legal protections in place for victims of nonconsensual porn, according to the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative. So victims should research state laws targeting nonconsensual porn before approaching the authorities.

Minors should know that law enforcement may decide to charge them if they created or distributed sexually explicit images, even of themselves. Those victims should get help from a trusted adult, who may be able to discuss the case, in broad terms, with the authorities to confirm that the victim would not be charged.

Consider civil action

Victims interested in suing their harassers may be able to get free legal assistance through the Cyber Civil Rights Legal Project, which has a team of about 75 lawyers on three continents, or from other lawyers around the country.

But even when legal representation is free, there are emotional costs to pursuing civil action, said David Bateman, a K&L Gates lawyer who co-founded the pro bono group with Ms. D’Amico. Going to trial can mean months or years of legal entanglement and public exposure, he said.

“It’s a good tool if you need it, but 95 percent of the people we see just really want to get this stuff down and move on with their life,” he said.

Ask for the material to be removed

After victims have considered their legal options, and, ideally, consulted a lawyer, they can focus on having the photos and videos taken down.

Many major websites and online services, including Google, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter and Yahoo, ban nonconsensual porn and have processes for reporting it.

In early April, Facebook announced it had created both new tools to prevent such images from reappearing on the site and a guide to dealing with the problem on its platform. The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative also has a guide.

Victims who created the images or videos themselves may also be able to use copyright law to have the material removed. (Another victim advocacy group, Women Against Revenge Porn, maintains a guide on how to file those claims.)

For those daunted by the process, takedown services can do the work for a fee, or free.

The New York Times