Facebook Is Asking For People's Nudes To Combat Revenge Porn

Facebook is piloting a new scheme that they hope will reduce the amount of instances of 'revenge porn' on their site. The social media giant is putting forward a system whereby people who have shared intimate photos with others and are afraid that they might be put in a public forum can have them 'hashed' so that they can't be uploaded to their site.

'Hashed' means that Facebook converts the image into a unique digital fingerprint that can be used to identify and block attempts to re-upload the same image. This software is already in use to combat extremist imagery as well as child sex abuse.

New York-based lawyer Carrie Goldberg, specialises in sexual privacy and has welcomed Facebook's efforts:

We are delighted that Facebook is helping solve this problem – one faced not only by victims of actual revenge porn but also individuals with worries of imminently becoming victims.

With its billions of users, Facebook is one place where many offenders aggress because they can maximise the harm by broadcasting the nonconsensual porn to those most close to the victim. So this is impactful.

This system is first being trialled in Australia. In the Australian pilot, users must first complete an online form on the e-safety commissioner’s website outlining their concerns. They will then be asked to send the pictures they are worried about to their own Messenger account while the e-safety commissioner’s office notifies Facebook of their submission. Once Facebook gets the notification, a community operations analyst will access the image and hash it to prevent future instances of the image being uploaded or shared.

Facebook will store the sensitive images for a short period of time before erasing them from their system.

A spokeswoman for Facebook said the company was exploring additional partners and countries for the project.

H/T: The Guardian