Last November, Australian media reported that Facebook was experimenting with a novel idea to combat revenge porn on its platforms. In a pilot program done in cooperation with the government, users would do something that feels ill advised: upload a nude image to Facebook. The idea was that by doing so, Facebook could preempt that specific image from being uploaded to the platform by someone else in the future through technology that can help identify duplicates. The program sparked backlash among Facebook observers and internet users. One cybersecurity expert told Quartz at the time that it was a “horrible idea,” questioning the wisdom of giving such sensitive information to a third party—a sentiment hard to shake after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which revealed just how unsafe user data was on Facebook. Despite the criticism, on May 22, Facebook announced that it was expanding the tests to the US, UK,…
UK
Thousands of UK men are victims to sextortion gangs according to figures released by the National Crime Agency (NCA). In 2017 1,304 cases of sextortion were reported to the NCA’s Anti-Kidnap and Extortion Unit (AKEU) by police forces across the UK. This is nearly three times more than the number of cases reported in 2015. Organised criminal gangs, often overseas, use fake online identities to befriend victims looking for genuine friendships online and persuade them to do sexual acts in front of a webcam. Gangs then use this footage to blackmail victims, threatening to share the video online. Roy Sinclair, operations manager from the National Crime Agency told ITV News some victims had been “in crisis” over being blackmail, and five people had taken their own lives. Both men and women can become targets. However according to the NCA young males aged 17 TO 25 and with an increasing…