Recently in New York, an aggravated harassment case where a man shared naked photos of his ex-girlfriend on Twitter was thrown out. The defendant, as the judge grudgingly conceded, didn’t actually break any laws. This case highlighted the need for a bill. So New York, among a few other states, introduced bills into their state legislatures outlawing something called “revenge porn.” Revenge porn is defined as the posting of nude or degrading pictures online to “get back” at someone, usually a former partner. There are websites that specialize in this type of pornography, including isanyoneup.com, which has been shut down. The creator (“professional life ruiner,” as he calls himself) and his collaborator would acquire pictures from different sources — sometimes spiteful exes, sometimes illegal hacking into email accounts — and post them on his website, usually with screenshots from Facebook or Twitter to properly identify the nude girl in the picture. The hacking landed the duo in jail and got the website shut down, but their other actions went unpunished.
There will always be people who relish in the immoral. Blaming a couple of dirtbags who make a website that exploits vengeful exes isn’t going to right the wrong, especially if it sells (isanyoneup.com was pulling in $13 thousand a month). The real bad guys are the people who received nude photos in confidence and shared them out of vengeance.
Most of the pictures are from ex-boyfriends and -girlfriends. It’s someone they cared about and trusted, maybe even loved. The pictures were originally sent with the promise of being “for your eyes only,” not shared with the world on the Internet or a dozen-person text message thread. It doesn’t matter if someone broke your heart, cheated on you or punched you in the face. Revenge porn can ruin people’s lives. Repercussions tend to include anything from ridicule and embarrassment to losing a job, moving or even changing names.
The bills proposed in the state legislatures would make sharing of clearly personal photos, even with a friend, illegal. This raises interesting questions, as it is a tug-of-war match between two constitutional rights: free speech and right to privacy. It also puts the American Civil Liberties Union, a public interest group that protects constitutional rights at any cost, in a tough spot because they don’t know whom to support.
The issue is one of consent and ownership: Does sending a picture you own to someone else with the intention of them seeing it make the picture theirs? Or does ownership lie solely with the one who took the picture? The most compelling issues are situations in which a person took pictures of his or her partner, with the partner’s consent of course, and shared them after they broke up. The pictures are obviously the possession of the picture-taker, but the photos are shared without the consent of the person in the photo. Is it wrong to tell people they cannot share pictures that are lawfully theirs?
Personally, I would love to see revenge porn outlawed in every state. It is one of the most despicable things that someone can do. You are potentially ruining the life of a person you once cared for. No amount of cheating or betrayal can justify the sharing of intimate information like that. But I also believe that there needs to be plenty of education about the dangers of sending anything potentially incriminating to anyone, even if you do trust them. People get their email accounts hacked all the time.
Now, whether or not it will be outlawed is a different question. It seems like it will pass through most state legislatures, but we don’t know if it will hold up in the courts. They are supposed to look at the issue through an unemotional lens, but it may be hard to in this situation. Most people in power agree that this is wrong, but it will be up to them to make it illegal.