In the wake of the recent cyber sexual terrorist attack on celebrities (“Hackarazzi”), the following applies to the nonconsensual distribution of sexual or nude photographs and videos (aka “revenge porn”), whether the depicted person is a celebrity or not.
YOU ARE A CONTRIBUTOR TO THE PROBLEM IF YOU HAVE DONE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:
- Hacked into a device or web storage system or email account;
- Retrieved nude or sexual pics/videos from a hacked device or web storage system;
- Sold or traded nude or sexual pics/ videos obtained illegally and without the consent of all persons featured;
- Posted nude or sexual pics/videos online or offline without the consent of all persons featured;
- Solicited more nonconsensual pornography from websites;
- Purchased or traded nonconsensual pornography;
- Engaged in sextortion, threatening to nonconsensually release pornography if X, Y, or Z doesn’t happen;
- Re-distributed (i.e. forwarded/retweeted) nude or sexual pics/videos without consent of parties depicted;
- Opened links and viewed pics/videos upon learning of specific pics/videos released;
- Used search engines to find links to pics/videos (thereby increasing the search engine optimization);
- Frequent websites populated with pics/videos of nonconsensual pornography;
- Bump up nonconsensual pornography on certain sites;
- Have posted links to the pic/video or websites featuring nonconsensual pornography;
- Are a website or social media platform hosting/publishing nonconsensual pornography and not removing it;
- Are a group member of a website or other social media group that posts nonconsensual pornography and are promoting this behavior or staying silent;
- Are a website or social media platform not banning post-ers and redistributors of nonconsensual porn and/or rethinking user anonymity;
- Are a website, social media platform, or web storage system and not cooperating with law enforcement to determine the culprits of the hacking and distribution of nonconsensual pornography;
- Have posted nonconsensual pornography on your website or news channel, even if partly pixelated;
- Claim the victim of the nonconsensual pornography is at fault for any of the following: having a weak password, consenting to or creating nude pic/video, sharing pic/video, saving pic/video, being a celebrity, being dumb, using the internet;
- Are advising the victim of the nonconsensual pornography on how to respond (and are not her publicist) and recommend that she be “chill” because any other reaction suggests she thinks sexuality is dirty or is ashamed of her body. (Ed.: Humiliation is a totally natural reaction!);
- Use social media to gloat that you “could never be a victim” because you’ve never created any sexual pics and/or have clean devices; (Nobody is immune from the fear that it could happen to them given that doctored photos are often posted. One of my clients had a pic from Facebook posted on a revenge porn site. In the Facebook pic she was in a bikini at the beach. In the posted one, replacing the bikini was a pair of triple Ds up top and exposed genitals down below.)
- Encourage other women to post nudes “in solidarity” with the recent hacking and distribution;
- Leave online comments on the body, race, sexuality, promiscuity of persons depicted in nonconsensual pornography;
- Make unsolicited contact with women who you know only from viewing nude photos/videos that were nonconsensually posted to the internet;
- Dox (i.e. post personal or identifying information) anybody whose pictures are nonconsensually distributed online;
- Are a search engine that is not engaged in ways to de-optimize searches when illegally obtained and nonconsensually distributed sexual photos are made accessible because of you; You, in fact are an accessory to a crime.
- Are a politician, law enforcer, judge, educator (or human being, really) who fails to see the nonconsensual distribution of intimate images as a real problem that’s not going away, effects civil rights, and exacts true permanent emotional, occupational, financial harms on the victims due to the aggregating power of the internet and the sexual nature of the humiliation.
This is cyber sexual terrorism. Terrorism because of the anonymous stealth sniper-ism of these. The enemy is amorphous, the attack unannounced. Suddenly WHAM! a cyber mob is hacking into your accounts, stealing content, trading it, and distributing it. It needs to stop. It’s been happening to non-celebrities for years. For further information, please visit www.endrevengeporn.org.
Hacking is a crime in our country. The distribution of intimate images is a crime in certain states. To determine if yours is one, click here. If not, email your legislators at once and tell them you want it! Even in states where distribution is not outlawed with criminal laws, it can still be addressed via civil court.