People who share someone’s personally intimate or explicit images or videos without their consent can now be charged with a misdemeanor offense in New York City, after a law passed in November went into effect Thursday.
Offenders in the city found guilty can be fined $1,000 and sentenced to a maximum of one year in jail.
Known as revenge porn, the act of disseminating salacious content without the subject’s approval has become a pernicious problem over the years as the internet progresses and its use proliferates.
Jurisdictional issues are still possible, as in the respective locations of the perpetrator and victims are a factor. If the victim is in New York City, for example, but the perpetrator is not, then courts will likely have to intervene, according to Gizmodo. If the situation is reversed, then New York City officials have authority.
Federally, a group of bipartisan senators have been championing policy that aims to combat the apparent rise of revenge pornography. Called the Ending Nonconsensual Online User Graphic Harassment (ENOUGH) Act of 2017, the prospective legislation would outlaw the action of sharing personal, sexual images without permission, which would then be considered revenge porn.
The bill would also empower the U.S. Department of Justice by ensuring it is fully equipped to address such privacy violations.
And it’s not just U.S. governing bodies that are trying to help. (RELATED: Denmark Police Charge 1,000 People For Sharing Video Of Adolescents Having Sex)
In collaboration with the Australian government, Facebook has been testing a program in which it asks some users to send in nudes or similar content so it can identify and weed out such images or videos when it immediately hits Facebook and other proprietary social media platforms like Instagram and Messenger.
Some people were fairly skeptical of the initiative because many are already worried about tech companies’ collection and utilization of user data. But the effort at least shows that Facebook is trying to push back against an issue that affects more people than most likely realize. (RELATED: Social Media Site Reveals 300 Anonymous Users’ Personal Info To Revenge Porn Victim)
And it still could prove to be one of the most viable options as the issue of revenge porn and appropriately and effectively combatting is inherently complex.
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