Yahoo Finance Facebook asks Brits to upload nude pictures they fear might be used in a 'revenge porn' attack
Facebook will ask Britons to upload nude pictures so they can be blocked if they are uploaded to the site in a “revenge porn” attack.
The social network is this week testing a “proactive technique” which assigns the offending intimate pictures with a unique identifier. If a picture with the same identifier is uploaded in the future, it will be blocked from Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.
Those who are concerned they may become a victim can call the government-funded UK Revenge Porn Helpline, who will submit a form to Facebook on their behalf. Upon receiving an email link, which they can upload the picture to, a trained Facebook employee will review its content and assign the digital fingerprint. The pictures are deleted after seven days.
Antigone Davis, Facebook’s Global Head of Safety said: “It’s demeaning and devastating when someone’s intimate images are shared without their permission, and we want to do everything we can to help victims of this abuse.”
Facebook does not allow explicit images on its website and will remove them and assign identifiers to prevent further sharing and it is a crime that could result in a two-year prison sentence, however it is still a significant problem for Facebook. Leaked documents from 2017 revealed that it saw 54,000 cases a month. The UK Revenge Porn Helpline, which is backed by £100 million in funding, has received more than 6,000 calls since its launch in 2015.
The Safety team visited nine different countries from Kenya to Sweden to hear experiences of those who had "their most intimate moments shared without permission".
Davis said: "From anxiety and depression to the loss of a personal relationship or a job, this violation of privacy can be devastating.
Today, people can already report if their intimate images have been shared without their consent, and we will remove each image and create a unique fingerprint known as a hash to prevent further sharing."
The tools are for those aged 18 and over, and has already been tested in Australia. It will be tested in the UK, US, and Canada from this week.
