School district, local law enforcement stress the consequences of cyberbullying

The offshore Web site that hosts hoards of “revenge porn” — including illegal shots of underage girls — lost its sole source of revenue Friday following a Post expose of its sleazy operation. A Spanish online-ad company said it was pulling its business from Anon-IB — also known as the “Best Anonymous Image Board” — and thanked The Post “for making us aware of this.” Anon-IB was raking in $1,500 a day from Barcelona-based ExoClick in exchange for hosting ExoClick’s ads on its site, according to an estimate from the Web-monitoring firm Alexa. “ExoClick has a zero tolerance policy to any forms of illegal content on publisher websites (as per our guidelines),” spokesman Giles Hirst said in an email statement. “On discovery of such content we will always take swift action to remove ads and ban the publisher from our network.” Several women told The Post that nude images taken…

  Google has always allowed people to request certain content, like a malicious website or copies of your contact information, to be removed from search results. The company already had a policy for removing private images or videos, but now it’s taking fake pornographic content more seriously. Google now has a support page dedicated to removing “involuntary fake pornography,” with instructions that people can follow to report said content. For a request to be accepted, the person reporting the content has to be the person depicted in the fake imagery. The company notes that this process only removes the requested content from Google search results, not from the sites actually hosting it. This updated policy is likely in response to the growing popularity of ‘deepfakes’ - sexual videos and images where someone’s face is substituted for another person’s (usually a celebrity). As the name might suggest, deepfakes are generated using…

  The allegations are that a young woman committed suicide after her boyfriend posted indiscreet videos of her on the internet. Whether the story is true or not is not as relevant as the issues it raised. What does the law say about pornography and even more so revenge pornography? Is there any recourse for victims given that pornography at whatever level is illegal in Zimbabwe? Revenge pornography, also called non-consensual pornography, is the unauthorised sharing and distribution of sexual images of another person without their consent. It is often committed by ex-lovers to spite, hurt and humiliate their victim and maximise shame. In extreme cases, the graphic images are sent to the victim’s family and friends and in the worst cases may be upload them onto porn websites where they give their contact details in order to maximise the nuisance and damage The law Zimbabwe Section 13 of the…

  Four years after a Californian woman sued her ex-boyfriend for posting sexually explicit photographs and videos of her online, she has been awarded $6.4 million (R80 million) in one the largest judgments of its kind. According to the the New York Times, shortly after a California woman and her boyfriend ended their relationship in 2013, he began to post sexual photographs and videos of her on pornography websites and to impersonate her in online dating forums, according to court documents. However, despite the victim’s eventual success, the case highlights the complexities of the law in this area which (like many other areas of law) lags behind technology, according to Kerri Crawford, senior associate at Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa. “Causes of action that spring to mind in these cases rely on laws aimed at combatting invasion of privacy, harassment, online abuse and in some instances, specific prohibitions against sharing intimate…

Lockport City School District and North Park Junior High School administrators believe recently created comprehensive education plans will change the determinations both got from the New York State Education Department saying they were in need of improvement.  In January, the state education department released its determinations for the classification of districts under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the new federal education law, and deemed Lockport a “target” district and North Park a “Comprehensive Support and Improvement” school.  At the time of the classification, North Park Principal Bernadette Smith said she believed the main thing that led to the school’s CSI designation was the number of students who do not take the state assessments, which are optional. Smith noted the ESSA criteria is based on a 95 percent participation rate in the tests, and at North Park, 61 percent of students took the tests last year.  Smith said in a recent interview that some of…

Getty Images Facebook, Twitter and Google aren’t prepared for deepfakes ahead of the US presidential election, a top Congressman said after the tech giants sent letters last week about how they deal with high-tech doctored videos and other kinds of media manipulation. The companies “have begun thinking seriously” about the challenges, said Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, but it’s their responsibility to prevent their platforms from being weaponized.  “It’s clear they are far from ready to accomplish that,” Schiff said in a statement.  Deepfakes are sophisticated video forgeries, created automatically by artificial intelligence, that can make people appear to be doing or saying things they never did. Though computer manipulation of video has existed for decades, artificial intelligence is making deepfakes and other so-called synthetic media more accessible and harder to detect. The companies — YouTube-owner Google, Facebook and Twitter — all responded in letters dated Wednesday to questions Schiff sent them…

ASSOCIATED PRESS Published 12:59 p.m. CT Oct. 4, 2017 | Updated 6:13 p.m. CT Oct. 4, 2017 ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — An eastern Minnesota man has been sentenced under a new state law that seeks to hold people accountable for revenge porn. Anoka resident Michael Weigel was sentenced to four months in jail and three years of probation, the Pioneer Press reported. The 39-year-old was convicted on one count of felony nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images. Weigel was accused of creating a fake Facebook account under the name of his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend, friending people they knew and posting naked pictures of the woman last December. He pleaded guilty to the charge in August. “I will worry about these images for the rest of my life and live with the shame and embarrassment the rest of my life,” the woman told the court. She spent weeks trying to have…

  Facebook is expanding its fight against revenge porn with a pilot program that asks users to send their naked photos so Facebook can block the photos before someone else shares them. Facebook’s been testing the system in Australia and is extending the trial to the U.S., Britain and Canada, BBC News reports. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Facebook’s Global Head of Safety Antigone Davis said the company was updating its pilot program targeting the non-consensual sharing of images on the platform. Rather than having to report an image after it’s already been shared around Facebook (the company already has a system in place for reporting and removing those images), Facebook will let users upload an image before it’s been seen by others, CNET reports. Facebook users worried about intimate images being shared on Facebook, Instagram or Messenger can contact their relevant local organization and submit a form. Facebook’s Global Head of Safety…

WASHINGTON — How cautious are you online? Scammers attempt to get money, goods or services out of unsuspecting people — and military members are often targets. Here are some scams that have affected service members, Defense Department employees and their families. Romance scams In April, Army Criminal Investigation Command put out a warning about romance scams in which online predators go on dating sites claiming to be deployed active-duty soldiers. It’s a problem that’s affecting all branches of service — not just the Army. CID said there have been hundreds of claims each month from people who said they’ve been scammed on legitimate dating apps and social media sites. According to the alleged victims, the scammers have asked for money for fake service-related needs such as transportation, communications fees, processing and medical fees — even marriage. CID said many of the victims have lost tens of thousands of dollars and likely will…

  Cops have launched a cybersex extortion probe after a teenager was lured into posing naked for an online scam artist. PAISLEY DAILY EXPRESS: Live news as it happens The 19-year-old victim, from Inchinnan, was tricked by a crook who posed as an attractive young woman before befriending him on Facebook. The con artist asked the young man to strip before recording the footage and then attempting to blackmail him. The stunned teenager was warned that if he didn’t transfer £1,500 to the crook, the sensitive footage would be sent to his family and friends on social media. Read More News: Paisley church has its prayers answered after finding new home Following the sickening incident, cops have now issued advice and warned members of the public to be aware of the scam. Inspector Cassie Glass, from the area’s community policing team, said: “We received reports that a 19-year-old male from…

  Thanks to the availability of apps like Facebook and Instagram, sharing content online has become second nature. But there’s a dark side to this trend too – revenge porn. Sadly, as internet-connected technology becomes more freely available, this phenomenon is on the rise. Here’s everything you need to know about it.   What is revenge porn? It involves someone posting explicit photos and/or videos of someone else online against their wishes. This includes both images and videos obtained without the victim’s consent (i.e. using hidden cameras or by hacking their devices) and those obtained within the context of an intimate relationship. Why is it called revenge porn? Due to a string of court cases in which embittered lovers posted photos and videos of their ex-partners without their consent. These exes were motivated by a desire to cause their former partners emotional distress as revenge for some slight – either…

  MERRIMACK – A Manchester man wanted for allegedly posting “private sexual images” of an acquaintance on the internet turned himself in to Merrimack police. Officials said Wednesday that Aaron Mattil, 29, of Six Mulsey St., was charged with one count of nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images, a Class B felony. He was booked at police headquarters and later released on $2,500 personal recognizance bail pending arraignment, which police said is scheduled for July 5 in Hillsborough County Superior Court-South in Nashua. Police said they issued the warrant for Mattil’s arrest earlier this month, shortly after the alleged victim filed a complaint. “It is alleged that Mattil disseminated private sexual images of an acquaintance … without their consent,” police said. They said Mattil allegedly posted them via text message. According to their archives, Merrimack police arrested Mattil on April 23, charging him with two counts of violation of a…

  A woman accused of leaking intimate photos of a Brandon Police Service candidate to senior members of the force during a hiring competition has vehemently denied the accusations and filed court documents alleging two other men may have shared the intimate images. Terry Lynn Peters, the defendant in a lawsuit filed by Brittany Roque, filed a statement of defence as well as a third-party claim against Ryan Friesen, a Brandon police officer, and Devon LeBlanc in the Brandon Court of Queen’s Bench last week. The documents come as a response to Roque’s accusations that Peters distributed intimate images of Roque without her consent as an act of revenge after discovering the photos on her partner’s computer, according to Roque’s statement of claim. Roque said she took and sent intimate photos to a BPS officer during a three-month affair with him in 2015, under the pretence he would not share…

Getty Images Taking a photo for commercial purposes is a different thing - as it is if you’ve purchased a ticket to a concert have to abide by their terms - however legally, nobody can claim copyright to their own image. “So long as you are on public property you can publish the photo,” says Stacks law firm. “But if you publish a photo taken by someone else you run into copyright issues. Get permission to use it.” However, lawyer Geoff Baldwin says if someone has a voyeuristic purpose, which can generally be thought of as capturing images of private activities for your own or someone else’s sexual gratification, it is likely to be an offence under the Crimes Act 1900 [NSW]. The distribution of ‘intimate images’ - like revenge porn - can also be an offence under the same Act. Under Australian law, it is also an offence in…

  It was 1995. Bill Clinton was in the White House. Seinfeld and Friends dominated primetime on TV. Radiohead was on the radio. The internet was still an innocent baby (except for porn, of course), but people could anticipate that it was going to be huge. That year, the story goes, California Congressman Chris Cox was on an airplane back to Washington when he read that the early online service provider Prodigy had been sued for defamation over something that a user had posted to one of its bulletin boards. The anonymous person had accused a Long Island securities firm (later immortalized in The Wolf of Wall Street) of fraud in connection with an initial public offering. The majority opinion of the New York State Supreme Court said that because Prodigy posted user guidelines, used moderators, and scanned for indecent content, it was therefore a “publisher” and therefore legally liable…