ITIF: Congress Should Pass Federal Legislation Criminalizing Revenge Porn
“Congress should pass federal legislation criminalizing revenge porn to bring relief to victims,” wrote Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Vice President Daniel Castro and research assistant Alan McQuinn in an opinion piece published by The Hill Tuesday. Former pro wrestler…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Hulk Hogan’s “unflinching quest for justice” after the distribution of a “lurid sex tape, in which he's the subject, without his permission," is "a prime example of the challenges revenge porn victims encounter" due to an inadequate legal system, they said. In 2012 the website Gawker published an edited copy of Hogan’s sex tape and declined to remove the video, claiming it was newsworthy, Castro and McQuinn said. Two issues in Hogan’s case are whether someone made the video without Hogan’s consent, since Hogan says he didn't know he was being taped, and whether Hogan consented to having sexually explicit images of his body distributed, Castro and McQuinn said. “Hogan may be a minor TV celebrity, but that does not justify such a gross violation of his privacy,” they said. “Revenge porn has a plethora of damaging effects, such as shattered reputations, loss of employment, emotional damage and all-too-real threats of violence from strangers,” Castro and McQuinn said. Currently 23 states have some sort of law outlawing nonconsensual pornography, but those in states without a law have little to no recourse, they said. The American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation have historically opposed state revenge porn legislation, “fearing that it could lead to infringement on free speech,” they said. Google recently announced it would remove from its search results nude or explicit images shared without the subjects' consent (see 1506190048">1506190048), but “private-sector action is not enough,” they said. “If a federal law existed, the government would pursue criminal prosecutions, ensuring that even victims unable to afford an expensive lawsuit could receive protection,” they said. “Congress should move expediently to take up legislation banning revenge porn -- such as Rep. Jackie Speier's, D-Calif., much-anticipated Intimate Privacy Protection Act -- because everyone deserves to choose when and how their nude images can be seen.” Speier’s office told us in February that she planned to introduce her legislation banning revenge porn in the coming months (see 1502040042). The ACLU had no further comment. EFF didn't comment.