Posting revenge porn – sharing sexually explicit photos of a person sent privately without their consent – has been illegal in the UK since 2016. That doesn’t mean it has stopped happening.
I was recently sent a link from one of my Twitter followers, alerting me to the fact my photo had been shared on a website called AnonMe.
When I clicked through to the site, I saw a photo I’d shared on Twitter in the summer. I was wearing a lacy nightie and I posted it as an empowering message to promote confidence for myself and other plus size women.
I hadn’t thought about it in over five months, let alone considered that someone might have saved it and uploaded it to such a site.
AnonMe, which describes itself as a revenge porn site, allows users to post adverts asking for information about specific people. Personal details such as photographs, videos and workplaces – which the subjects do not consent to being shared – are then provided by other users.
From what I saw when I went onto the site, each photo had been posted by an anonymous source without a note on where the images came from. Every image was titled with the woman’s real name at least, and more often with an age and location.
And what’s worse, underneath the pictures users were repeatedly calling the women featured ‘slags’, ‘sluts’ and many more misogynistic slurs of the same slant. The contradiction is clear: they hate the women posing in these photos but still want to see as many photos like this as they can.
just found out i've been shared on an anonme board and it's actually so grim of men sharing nudes they've saved of girls without their consent and rating them/calling them slags
pls pls sign this petition to get the site shut down its the grimmest https://t.co/ebsHGkuYze pic.twitter.com/6vCQfPcJOv
— ✨ GINA TONIC ✨ (@GlNATONIC) November 29, 2019
Speaking to the police on the day I found out, I was told that because I had previously shared my own image publicly there was nothing they could do – even though the image was shared again without my consent and in such a disturbing context.
I explained that there are hundreds of images of girls on the site, none of whom had likely consented to having their personal details revealed, but again I was told there was nothing the British police could do. In particular because AnonMe is a ‘global website’ and it is unclear who counts as a ‘victim’ in this instance.
Even if no laws are being broken, the context of AnonMe is what makes it immoral. It’s a purposeful violation of privacy in the worst way possible.
The internet has given many a positive platform to share our views and our selfies, but because of sites like AnonMe, and even simply the ability to be anonymous online, hatred and harm festers.
It can feel hopeless fighting against sites like this when in reality, speaking publicly about these kinds of sex crimes is a battle cry in itself.
If our sexuality is being weaponised to try and make us feel ashamed, we need to be bold and brash against it.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5h1hEpAO4d/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
One woman who found her photos on the website has taken matters into her own hands without police help. She has started a Change.org petition – which is on over 21,000 signatures at the time of writing – to appeal to Google and get the site shut down.
As the creator of the petition, Iam Maleficent, states in the petition description, ‘This [site] is an absolute outrage and violation of women’s rights. This website and the behaviour it promotes encourages a dangerous and predatory mindset, abuse and stalking.’ There is still no update about whether or not this petition is being seen or responded to at all.
Having my image shared without my consent made me deeply uncomfortable. Knowing someone saved it for menacing reasons was a violating act that made me wonder why I specifically had been targeted and I worried for my own safety.
It is upsetting to know that a photo I took to empower myself and other women is now being used to try and do the exact opposite. But I won’t let it.
Sign the petition here.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/02/my-photo-was-shared-on-a-revenge-porn-site-11256035/
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