Revenge porn is a serious issue online, and few would dispute there needs to be serious repercussions for offenders.
Shucks, there are large populations in America that think any porn online is a serious cancer and there needs to be appropriation penalties.
But now there’s a new strategy by Meta, formerly Facebook, according to a posting on Friday on DIYPhotography.
The company says you should send your porn images to it, if you don’t want them online.
The DIYPhotography confirmed the problem, but was skeptical about the solution.
“Meta has come up with a ‘brilliant’ idea to prevent your nude content from spreading across Facebook and Instagram. The company has launched a tool that lets you submit your explicit photos to a hashing database so that they can be recognized and removed from the platforms in the future.
“Needless to say, this has raised some concerns in the community.”
The report explains the Revenge Porn Helpline, Meta, and dozens of other groups launched the StopNCII.org site to attack the problem.
“If you suspect someone might share your intimate photos, or they threaten to do it, you can submit your case through the website. This will require you to submit photos or videos that show you nude or semi-nude, engaged in a sexual act, and so on. Naturally, the public hasn’t accepted this very well, considering that Meta is involved. We all know that it’s not exactly a synonym for privacy protection,” the report explained.
The process is that once a case is begun, the person requesting protection will have to submit information, such as who is in the images, and where it was filmed.
“Then you’ll get to upload it [the image] – but it will never leave your computer,” the report said. “It will only be used to generate a ‘digital fingerprint’ that assigns a unique hash value to your image or video. Then, all the tech companies involved in StopNCII.org will receive the hash and they can use it to detect if someone has shared or is trying to share your private content on their platforms.”
Meta explained, “Only hashes, not the images themselves, are shared with StopNCII.org and participating tech platforms. This feature prevents further circulation of that NCII content and keeps those images securely in the possession of the owner.”
The report said Facebook tried something similar four years ago, when people were told to contact an e-Safety Commissioner, and send the images or video through Messenger.
“It appears that StopNCII.org uses the same technology, only your images and videos don’t go through Messenger. It’s generally a good idea and revenge porn is definitely something we need to combat. Still, anything that has Meta’s fingers in it doesn’t really earn my trust, so I’m still a bit skeptical about this. I guess only time will tell if it’s a good idea or not,” the DIYPhotography report said.
NBC explained Meta worked with a nonprofit organization in the United Kingdom to build the software.
According to the report, Karuna Nain, Meta’s director of global safety policy, said the concept is that an independent website makes it easier for companies to use the system.
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