Facebook pilots new revenge porn measures in Australia

The social media giant is trying to build up a database of image “hashes” - a digital fingerprint that will allow it to identify when a private photo is being shared by someone else.

Similar technology is already being used to identify images of child sexual abuse or extremist content.

The new initiative is currently being piloted in Australia in partnership with the Office of the eSafety Commissioner.

Users must first complete an online form on the commissioner’s website to outline their concerns, and will then be asked to send the pictures of concern to themselves on Facebook Messenger while commissioner’s office notifies Facebook. Once notified, a community operations analyst will hash the image, which is then deleted after a short period of time.

New York lawyer Carrie Coldberg, who specialises in sexual privacy, told The Guardian: “We are delighted that Facebook is helping solve this problem – one faced not only by victims of actual revenge porn but also individuals with worries of imminently becoming victims.

“With its billions of users, Facebook is one place where many offenders aggress because they can maximize the harm by broadcasting the nonconsensual porn to those most close to the victim.”