FB moves vs indiscriminate sharing of intimate content

MANILA, Philippines — Facebook users sharing intimate images without the consent of owners may find their accounts disabled, the social media company said.

Antigone Davis, Facebook’s global head of safety, said they recently launched a new detection technology to strengthen efforts to remove non-consensual intimate images on their platforms, including on Messenger and Instagram.

“Finding these images goes beyond detecting nudity on our platforms. By using machine learning and artificial intelligence, we can now proactively detect near nude images or videos that are shared without permission on Facebook and Instagram,” she said.

“This means we can find this content before anyone reports it, which is important for two reasons: often victims are afraid of retribution so they are reluctant to report the content themselves or are unaware the content has been shared,” she added.

Davis said a specially-trained member of the community operations team will review the content found by their technology, resulting in its removal and disabling of the account of those who shared it if found to be in violation of community standards.

The Facebook official said the new detection technology is in addition to an existing program that allows people to securely submit a photo to Facebook that they do not want to be shared on the platform. 

“We then create a digital fingerprint of that image and stop it from ever being shared on our platform in the first place. After receiving positive feedback from victims and support organizations, we will expand this pilot over the coming months so more people can benefit from this option in an emergency,” Davis said.

The social media company also launched a support hub where victims can find organizations and resources to support them, including steps they can take to remove the content from the platform and prevent it from being shared further.

“We’re also going to make it easier and more intuitive for victims to report when their intimate images were shared on Facebook. And over the coming months, we’ll build a victim support toolkit to give people around the world more information with locally and culturally relevant support,” Davis added.

Impact on victims

A research conducted by Facebook highlighted the serious emotional and physical consequences of sharing intimate images without consent to victims.

“Sometimes called ‘revenge porn,’ it’s really a form of sexual violence that can be motivated by an intent to control, shame, humiliate, extort and terrorize victims,” said Radha Iyengar and Karuna Nain, Facebook’s head of product policy research and manager for global safety policy programs, respectively.

They said the consequences that victims face vary, depending on the cultural context, although all felt violated, angry and embarrassed.

“Victims in more traditional communities may be shunned and exiled from their communities. Organizations we’ve worked with reported cases in which victims were forced to run away from home to avoid persecution and even physical harm,” they said.

“And many countries lack established support organizations, or viable law enforcement solutions,” they added.

Iyengar and Nain underscored the need to build clear and accessible tools to support victims in reporting a violation.

They also recommended the development of prevention methods such as tools to report and proactively block someone from sharing non-consensual images.

“They are scared and worried that their family, friends and co-workers will see the images. In fact, harm for the victims continues long after the images are removed,” noted the company executives.

“The mental health consequences include anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and sometimes post-traumatic stress disorders. There can be economic and professional consequences for victims, including lost jobs, fewer professional connections and colleagues who tease or avoid them. It can also be difficult finding new employment,” they added.