Facebook Explains Their Controversial Revenge Porn Prevention Program

As it stands, Facebook has a method to help users who are facing revenge porn situations, where a disgruntled ex might have posted intimate photos in an attempt to humiliate/shame them. How it works is by users flagging the photo, and with photo matching technology, it will help prevent those photos from being uploaded in the future.

However the problem with that is that action is only taken after the image has been uploaded, which by then might be too late. Facebook then recently introduced a new and somewhat controversial method which involved users pre-empting their attackers by uploading (privately) intimate photos of themselves, in which Facebook will then create a digital signature/hash of that image so that should your partner/ex-partner attempt to upload that photo, it will be prevented. Safe to say that the method Facebook has announced has caused a bit of controversy.

However these are questions, doubts, and worries that Facebook is attempting to assuage. In a post by Antigone Davis, the Global Head of Safety at Facebook, she explains in detail how it works. Basically this method is meant to serve as an emergency option where if you think your ex could be thinking of uploading such photos, you could pre-empt their attempts.

Davis also highlights how Facebook does not store your uploaded photos, but just the hash of the photo, meaning that Facebook will not hold onto it, save for the person who reviews and hashes it. Once that’s all been done, Facebook will then email the person who submitted the photo and tell them to delete the photo from the Messenger thread on their device.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Facebook