The ‘revenge porn’ victory we need

The fight against “revenge porn” chalked up a small victory recently. So why am I not celebrating?

The Federal Trade Commission released a statement saying it had barred Craig Brittain, a Colorado man, from posting nude images of women to his website without their written consent. We are by now familiar with the concept of what’s broadly known as “revenge porn,” that is, posting explicit images online of people — women, mostly — without their knowledge or permission. The practice has swept up celebrities such as Scarlett Johansson, Rihanna and Jennifer Lawrence, putting the issue on the national radar.

Sometimes the images are stolen by hackers able to access phones, computers or clouds; in other cases, they may have, at one time, been willingly shared with a romantic partner who, after the relationship ends, seeks to enact “revenge” by making those private images public.

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