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Giving New Meaning to Baring our Privacy- by Liam Calvert #6

Last year, a collection of nearly 500 private photos of various celebrities, mostly featuring women, and with many containing nudity, were posted on the image board 4chan, and later distributed by other users of social networks like Tumblr and Reddit (Remling 2014). It is believed that the celebrities were victims of hackers who managed to gain access to the sensitive material via a breach of Apples’ iCloud system (Remling 2014). Dubbed “The Fappening” – a combination of “the happening” and the slang term for masturbation, “fapping” – the nude celebrity hacking scandal of August 2014 not only represents a serious invasion of privacy, but moreover it highlights the sizeable role social imaging platforms are playing in the subsequent explosion of involuntary pornography (Lawrence 2014).

Essentially, involuntary or “revenge” porn can best be described as the intentional distribution or sexually explicit material without the subject’s permission and it strikes at the heart of issues pertaining to harassment, privacy, sexual violation and victim blaming []. Moreover it seems to be becoming more prevalent, the Internet besieged with harrowing tales of lives ruined and reputations destroyed by ex-lovers and strangers alike (Lawrence 2014).

Examining this issue, Harriett Walker (2014) suggests that we now live in what she describes as a “porn culture”, a sexualised hyper-reality fed by the Internet, social media and image-sharing platforms (Walker 2014). Snapchat for instance, a mobile application allowing users to send visual content that “disappears” after a pre-defined number of seconds has challenged the “it’s permanent” nature we associate with other social media services (Roesner, Gill & Kohno 2014).

In any case, all this begs the fundamental question: what’s being done to stop it?

Not surprisingly, the answer’s a complex one…

In short, it depends on the circumstances of the privacy invasion and where you live. While some nations like the United States, Germany and Israel have been proactive in their response to the problem, others like our own remain split on the issue (Lawrence 2014).

Indeed, as it currently stands, there appears to be a sparse assortment of state and federal laws designed to safeguard against sexually based crimes; but nothing comprehensive. This despite that fact that a review conducted by the Australian Law Reform Commission way back in 2008 saw fit to highlight the reality that more must be done to tackle the challenge privacy invasion presents (Lawrence 2014).

However as Vanessa Lawrence points out that even if there were sufficient laws in place, the faceless nature of the Internet makes it extremely difficult for victims of revenge porn to prove a perpetrator’s guilt (Lawrence 2014). Just as quickly as they commit the offense, wrong-doers can disappear under a cloak of anonymity, hiding behind fake IP addresses, email accounts, and public computers that prevent their exploits from being traced (Lawrence 2014).

With this in mind, experts Danielle Citron and Mary Franks claim that the serious consequences linked with revenge porn warrants increased attention from legislators around politicians around the world, reminding us that the Internet provides a staggering means of amplification that extends reach of content in unimaginable ways (Citron & Franks 2014). Furthermore, they propose that non-consensual pornography heightens the risk of offline stalking and physical attack, reflecting the inherent peril of doing nothing (Citron & Franks 2014).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/03/kevin-bollaert-revenge-porn-sentenced_n_7002364.html

In any event, until the law catches up with advances in digital technology, the responsibility firmly and squarely lies with us. This means taking safeguarding measures, from installing anti virus and anti spyware software on your computer to generally making smart personal decisions (i.e. not handing our your passwords to just anyone). Additionally it means helping to spread the message that it’s not okay for this behaviour to continue, or to go unpunished by law-makers (Lawrence 2014). “Think of domestic violence – there was a lot of effort from a lot of people for many years to see that it was treated as the crime it is rather than something that goes on behind closed doors,” says David Vaile, co-convener of the Cyberspace Law & Policy Community at the University of NSW (Lawrence 2014). “We need to approach involuntary porn with the same attitude, to make sure the devastating reality of its impact doesn’t get swept aside (Lawrence 2014).”

References:

Citron, D. K. & Franks, M. A. 2014, ‘Criminalising Revenge Porn’, Wake Forest Law Review, vol. 49, no. 2, pp.345-391

Lawrence, V. 2014, ‘The sex crime we need to talk about’, Elle Australia, 27 December, viewed 9 May 2015, http://www.elle.com.au/news/zeitgeist/2014/12/the-sex-crime-we-need-to-talk-about/

Remling, A. 2014, ‘iCloud Nude Leaks: 26 Celebrities Affected In The Nude Photo Scandal’, International Business Times, 21 September, viewed 9 May 2015, http://www.ibtimes.com/icloud-nude-leaks-26-celebrities-affected-nude-photo-scandal-1692540

Roesner, F, Gill, B. T. & Kohno, T. 2014, ‘Sex, Lies, or Kittens? Investigating the Use of Snapchat’s Self-Destructing Messages’, Financial Cryptography and Data Security, Financial Crypto, Seattle, United States of America, pp. 1-12

Walker, H. 2014, ‘The #aftersex selfie is a betrayal of intimacy’, The Guardian, 5 April, viewed 14 May 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/04/aftersex-selfie-betrayal-of-intimacy-instagram

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