Ride the Lightning

Revenge Porn Victims Are Fighting Back

December 4, 2013

One of the more interesting stories I've read recently was in the ABA Journal: Striking Back at Revenge Porn. It interested me because we handle so many of these cases. It is extraordinary how many people (mostly men) post pornographic photos of former lovers or wives on these dreadful sites. Those are most of the cases we see, but some postings come from hackers, computer repair folks or people who have collected photos though personal online ads.

Sometimes it is "revenge porn" and sometimes it is simply "involuntary porn." Whatever the motivation by posters, these sites have multiplied over the past several years, often including the victims' names, city and state and social media sites. Not only does this threaten the victims' safety but listing the names elevates the Google search results which can hurt (among many other things) the victims' ability to get a job.

Only two states, California and New Jersey, make it illegal to post a sexual photo online without the subject's consent. So what are the victims to do? Some turn to copyright law (if they took the photo themselves). But frankly, many sites could care less or are located outside the country, a long way from the reach of our laws.

Often, the posts violate existing laws like privacy, hacking or cyberstalking laws, but law enforcement authorities (and boy, can we attest to this) have little interest in these crimes. They've even been known to "shame" the victims for letting the photos be taken. It doesn't help that Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act grants website operators immunity from lawsuits over their users' speech – and most experts seem to believe that the website operators are indeed shielded.

My usual allies, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, are not my friends here because they object to criminalizing speech. But things they have sought, such as proof that the victim has "suffered serious emotional distress" as a consequence of the postings, are huge hurdles. And really, does anyone imagine that women (and men) who have been victimized in this fashion by others do NOT suffer serious emotional distress? In the last 12 years, I've never met a victim who shrugged his or her shoulders and said, "Oh well."

It's a good article which explores a murky and thorny subject. Kudos to the ABA Journal for an excellent exploration of an area of law most people know little about.

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