The City Council is poised to criminalize “revenge porn” locally following years of inaction by state lawmakers — who have let a similar bill languish in Albany since 2014.
Under a proposal by Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Queens), anyone who posts someone’s “intimate image” without permission could be sent to jail for a year and slapped with a $1,000 fine.
The legislation would also expose offenders to civil penalties — including “compensatory and punitive damages” — even without a criminal conviction.
Lancman’s bill — which has the support of Mayor de Blasio — is being “primed” for a vote by the Public Safety Committee, his office said Friday.
Assemblyman Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside) introduced similar legislation in Albany three years ago, but it has yet to win the support of the Codes Committee.
“There’s people who blame the victim for taking the pictures or allowing that significant other to take the pictures in the first place,” a statehouse source familiar with the matter said.
Codes Committee Chairman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn) called Braunstein’s bill “so damaging to free speech that it’s unconstitutional.”
“It needs to be narrowly drawn enough to be limited to harassing or stalking or threatening or causing them serious harm . . . without burdening protected speech.”
