Facebook Wants to Rid Itself of Revenge Porn

Facebook is cracking down on revenge porn

Facebook is looking into ways of ridding itself of revenge porn

Facebook is looking into possible solutions for wiping off revenge porn from its platform. The experiment is taking place in Australia and was greenlit by a joint partnership between the social media platform and the Australian government. The solution, however, is quite unorthodox.

Both Facebook and the Australian government’s e-Safety Commissioner are acting against the unwanted publication of nonconsensual media by way of nude photos. While this may seem a bit unusual, the two organizations believe it to be effective.

How it works

If a person suspects to be a victim of revenge porn they can contact e-Safety and send them a nude photo of themselves through Messenger. Facebook will then use its matching algorithms and essentially track the file on their platform. This technology can already be found in Facebook’s photo and face matching technology. It has a slight tweak that „hashes” or tracks the media in question. By tracking your intimate photo or video, they will, in turn, be able to prevent it from unwanted attention. The media won’t be saved on their servers but it will continue catching duplicates. In an interview with ABC, e-Safety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, reassured the public of their strategy:

„They’re not storing the image, they’re storing the link and using artificial intelligence and other photo-matching technologies”

There’s a catch

The only catch is you need to be in possession of the original file to make it work. However, the Verge stated that if you do tag your media in time, this could prevent it from being further altered by third parties.

Australia isn’t the only place where Facebook will stand its ground against revenge porn. The platform implemented another preventive mechanism in April by photo-matching images that have been reported or taken down.

This new step towards eliminating nonconsensual file sharing appears to be Facebook’s way of giving power to the individual. But there are issues with the strategy as some have already noticed. People might not trust the website, regardless of its authority, mainly because they’d feel like they’re uploading revenge porn themselves. Australia is one of the four other countries currently testing the strategy.

Image Source: StaticFlickr

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Roxanne Briean

I am a geek, a gamer and a writer. I have always been fascinated with the online community. At the moment I work as a full-time writer and study interior design. When I'm not scouring the net in search of interesting new gadgets and software I spend my time in MOBAs or drawing.