TikTok, Bumble Join Social Media Giants To Hit Back Against ‘Revenge Porn’

Social platform TikTok and dating application Bumble have joined the likes of Facebook and Meta in an initiative to fight the sharing of revenge porn online. 

According to SWGfL, an online safety non-profit, a program dubbed StopNCII (Stop Non-Consensual Intimate Image Abuse) will be made available to any adult who may be concerned their personal pictures are being shared without their knowledge. 

The problem is only getting worse with time, with the organization noting that cases of revenge porn had risen 40% in the United Kingdom just between 2020 and 2021, from 3,146 reported cases to over 4,400. 

Those who suspect there are non-consensual images of themselves circulating on the aforementioned platforms can now submit the images they’re worried about to the sites’ content moderators for them to be ‘hashed’. 

Each image, when hashed, will be assigned a unique digital fingerprint or identifier in the form of letters and numbers, which will then be shared among all of the program’s partners. 

Once an image is registered with the program, if anyone tries reuploading the particular image onto the participating platforms, they will be prevented from doing so. 

As reported by Bloomberg, over 12,000 people have submitted 40,000 pictures and videos since the initiative first launched last year. Though David Wright, SWGfL’s CEO, urged for more to join the effort. 

Only four platforms are part of the program at the moment, and if other sites join in on blocking these hashes, the more quickly and effectively the system can “reduce the threat and fear victims experience.” 

“We encourage anyone who is experiencing the devastating effects of intimate image abuse to use StopNCII.org and ensure that their private intimate images, stay private,” concluded Sophie Mortimer, Revenge Porn Helpline Manager at SWGfL. 

[via PC Mag and SWGfL, cover image via Seemanta Dutta | Dreamstime.com and Michele Ursi | Dreamstime.com]