By Sharanya Gopinathan
Revenge porn is when people post “intimate” pictures of their partners or former partners online without their knowledge or consent in order to exact “revenge” upon them. It’s basically a dick move that people make to humiliate their former partners, and it can have lasting repercussions on their lives. It’s a really evil move that leaves the victims helpless, angry and humiliated, and can impact their mental, physical and emotional well-being.
Given the rise of instances like this in India as well, particularly on social media, the Centre has decided to tighten laws to equip them to deal with things like revenge porn. The Ministry of Women and Child Development is looking at ways to tackle cyber crime, particularly online sexual abuse. Instead of coming out with a new legislation to deal with online sexual abuse, they’re looking to “bridge the gap between existing IPC provisions and the Information Technology Act”.
We don’t know how the bridging of this gap is going to take place, and it would be heartening to have a law dedicated to addressing the complexity of online sexual abuse. Still, it’s really great that the government is taking revenge porn and online sexual abuse so seriously, and it’s good to know that women who are impacted by this will have clear legal recourse that they can turn to. That being said, we should still keep in mind how difficult it still remains for women to have their complaints taken seriously and respectfully, and acted upon with speed.
We wouldn’t be the first country to have legislation that deals with revenge porn: several states in the US, and countries like the UK, Israel, the Phillippines, Brazil, Canada and others have them too, and more countries are enacting such legislation every day. Google has a policy of removing nude or sexual pictures that were intended for private use and that were shared without consent. Facebook’s policy is a little bit murkier: according to the Guardian’s expose of Facebook’s policies, only photos that were shared with an intention to shame or humiliate are taken down.