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Facebook flooded with 'sextortion' and revenge porn, files reveal

theguardian.com

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Re: Facebook flooded with 'sextortion' and revenge porn, files reveal

#31

Post by barsonme »

vivekd wrote: post #26

So here's my thing: Imagine a world where facebook didn't exist. Would it have been impossible for this guy to get their photos and videos, post them on the internet? I guess facebook does make it easier to email things to family and friends - but it only does so with the user's consent - you have the option to make your friends list private. It seems to me like this guy is a real creep, and he should certainly be pu…

> But your friend also seems to have made a poor decision in allowing someone who is a creep to take very personal photos and videos of herself which could cause enormous humiliation.

Yeah, this is just classic victim blaming nonsense.

Sure, it's good advice to avoid recording anything you don't want eventually published—this goes for conversations as much as it does 'personal' pictures and videos.

But that's entirely irrelevant here and sharing 'personal' pictures with your significant other is normal.

Re: Facebook flooded with 'sextortion' and revenge porn, files reveal

#32

Post by showerst »

vivekd wrote: post #26

So here's my thing: Imagine a world where facebook didn't exist. Would it have been impossible for this guy to get their photos and videos, post them on the internet? I guess facebook does make it easier to email things to family and friends - but it only does so with the user's consent - you have the option to make your friends list private. It seems to me like this guy is a real creep, and he should certainly be pu…

I didn't downvote you, but I think your frame of reference here is awful. Victim blaming in these cases really understates the harm caused by these actions, and the lack of agency that the victims have in preventing them.

If the same boyfriend had stabbed her, would it be her fault for dumping someone who might stab her later? Of course not. The victim has a legal (and ethical) right to take whatever photos she deems appropriate, and then control their dissemination later.

FB isn't responsible for every embarrassing thing on their platform, but they are responsible for responding to "Report of a crime" combined with a nudity filter flag ASAP. If OP is true that it can take over a month, that's not acceptable.

She shouldn't have to make her friends list private to not be the victim of harassment. In this case I don't think it would matter anyway, as he likely knew the names of her family.

Your texting example isn't exactly 1:1 because we don't think of those items as being uploaded publicly to AT&T's servers, although keep in mind if that happened she could still roll into a police station and get him charged with harassment, and more serious crimes in many US states that now have specific statues against revenge porn. If AT&T was hosting the texts on a server, then yes they should be responsible for illegal activity hosted on their platform. (I'm not sure how US/EU common carrier regulations apply to texting, so they may not be).

Re: Facebook flooded with 'sextortion' and revenge porn, files reveal

#33

Post by js2 »

vivekd wrote: post #26

So here's my thing: Imagine a world where facebook didn't exist. Would it have been impossible for this guy to get their photos and videos, post them on the internet? I guess facebook does make it easier to email things to family and friends - but it only does so with the user's consent - you have the option to make your friends list private. It seems to me like this guy is a real creep, and he should certainly be pu…

Some of your questions come very close to blaming the victim, don't they?

What the real shame here to me is that nude photos/videos are something to be ashamed of or embarrassed about in the first place. Because from that premise, now you need to be careful about what you allow to be filmed and by whom. It is especially sad that women apparently need too worry about this a lot more than men.

Re: Facebook flooded with 'sextortion' and revenge porn, files reveal

#34

Post by eternalban »

eternalvision wrote: post #27
nsaslideface wrote: post #24

Some problems run deeper than their individual manifestations such as these for which one may propose techie solutions -- here, sex ed is the only permanent solution. It's time to find ways to explain to boys that sex is an ordinary way to have fun and/or connect romantically between adult people, rather than a source or arena of power or status as it is endlessly portrayed in media.

Sex and power/status are inextricably linked for much of society.

Society implies culture thus construct whereas this feature is observed in much (all?) of animal kingdom as well.

Re: Facebook flooded with 'sextortion' and revenge porn, files reveal

#35

Post by vivekd »

js2 wrote: post #33
vivekd wrote: post #26

So here's my thing: Imagine a world where facebook didn't exist. Would it have been impossible for this guy to get their photos and videos, post them on the internet? I guess facebook does make it easier to email things to family and friends - but it only does so with the user's consent - you have the option to make your friends list private. It seems to me like this guy is a real creep, and he should certainly be pu…

Some of your questions come very close to blaming the victim, don't they? What the real shame here to me is that nude photos/videos are something to be ashamed of or embarrassed about in the first place. Because from that premise, now you need to be careful about what you allow to be filmed and by whom. It is especially sad that women apparently need too worry about this a lot more than men.

>Because from that premise, now you need to be careful about what you allow to be filmed and by whom.

Yes, exactly!! You do need to be careful about what you allow to be filmed and by whom. That is the substance of my comment. I agree that this is unfortunate. Maybe in some wonderful utopia to come we won't have to worry about such things, but in this world and under current circumstances, unfortunately we have to take steps to protect ourselves from the possible evil deeds of other men and women.

Re: Facebook flooded with 'sextortion' and revenge porn, files reveal

#36

Post by planteen »

bossx wrote: post #25

They should have a verification process for accounts beyond verifying an email address. Verify identity, it's way too easy for people to be impersonated, there's a whole TV show dedicated to this...

You need a phone number to register a new Facebook account...

Re: Facebook flooded with 'sextortion' and revenge porn, files reveal

#37

Post by [deleted] »

barsonme wrote: post #31
vivekd wrote: post #26

So here's my thing: Imagine a world where facebook didn't exist. Would it have been impossible for this guy to get their photos and videos, post them on the internet? I guess facebook does make it easier to email things to family and friends - but it only does so with the user's consent - you have the option to make your friends list private. It seems to me like this guy is a real creep, and he should certainly be pu…

> But your friend also seems to have made a poor decision in allowing someone who is a creep to take very personal photos and videos of herself which could cause enormous humiliation. Yeah, this is just classic victim blaming nonsense. Sure, it's good advice to avoid recording anything you don't want eventually published—this goes for conversations as much as it does 'personal' pictures and videos. But that's entirel…

[deleted]

Re: Facebook flooded with 'sextortion' and revenge porn, files reveal

#38

Post by vivekd »

barsonme wrote: post #31
vivekd wrote: post #26

So here's my thing: Imagine a world where facebook didn't exist. Would it have been impossible for this guy to get their photos and videos, post them on the internet? I guess facebook does make it easier to email things to family and friends - but it only does so with the user's consent - you have the option to make your friends list private. It seems to me like this guy is a real creep, and he should certainly be pu…

> But your friend also seems to have made a poor decision in allowing someone who is a creep to take very personal photos and videos of herself which could cause enormous humiliation. Yeah, this is just classic victim blaming nonsense. Sure, it's good advice to avoid recording anything you don't want eventually published—this goes for conversations as much as it does 'personal' pictures and videos. But that's entirel…

She dated the wrong guy and trusted him too much. That's fine, lots of women make that mistake and she shouldn't be shamed or blamed for that. I never said she should be. All I am saying is that it's not facebooks responsibility to fix that mistake for her.

Re: Facebook flooded with 'sextortion' and revenge porn, files reveal

#39

Post by wcummings »

eternalvision wrote: post #27
nsaslideface wrote: post #24

Some problems run deeper than their individual manifestations such as these for which one may propose techie solutions -- here, sex ed is the only permanent solution. It's time to find ways to explain to boys that sex is an ordinary way to have fun and/or connect romantically between adult people, rather than a source or arena of power or status as it is endlessly portrayed in media.

Sex and power/status are inextricably linked for much of society.

And that's the problem.

Re: Facebook flooded with 'sextortion' and revenge porn, files reveal

#40

Post by deegles »

brighteyes wrote: post #30

Facebook disabling 14,000 accounts in a single month because of that kind of terrible behavior does show this is a serious problem. But it's still a very rare problem. Given Facebook has 1.19 billion monthly users, that's on the order of 1 in 100,000 accounts.

That seems high to me. We should strive for this to be so rare that it's news-worthy when it happens at all.
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