Watch out! Your sex-text can return as revenge porn

There’s nothing wrong with sexting. But in an alarming number of cases consensually shared images and texts are being exploited for revenge porn and extortion. The Chandigarh video leak case is the latest example of how things can turn murky, and those targeted in these leaks end up being harassed if and when they do come forward.

As with many young couples during the pandemic, video calls were a big part of Rashi” and Amit’s* courtship. The young couple would chat over video, unable to meet despite living in the same village in east India. Eventually, when they met, Rashi realized that Amit was not as sweet as he seemed on screen. She called it off but he retaliated with a torrential stream of social media accounts to stalk her, even threatening self-harm. Eventually, he sent her sister racy screenshots that he had taken during their video chats.

With the help of NGO Rati Foundation, Rashi was able to take down the accounts he was using and stop the circulation of photos. Vet, this is not the experience of many young people who send their partner nude photographs which are later used to extort or coerce them once the relationship sours. Non-consensual image sharing, or what is commonly called revenge pornography, is seeing an uptick, according to activists.

Just a Google search of ‘nude photos leak’ reveals the extent to which such images are in circulation. Targets include many actresses from Bollywood, Kollywood and Bhojpuri films. The most recent example is the Chandigarh MMS leak in which a student apparently shared a shower video with her boyfriend. NCRB data from 2021 shows that 1,724 cybercrime cases were motivated by revenge. A 2014 study by McAfee also found that 28% of Indians surveyed had a former partner threaten to reveal explicit images but didn’t and 17% actually had a partner do so. As with much else on the internet, the process of getting these images permanently removed can be akin to playing a sadistic game of whack-a-mole.

How revenge porn works
Advocate and law professor Debarati Haider runs the NGO Center For Cyber Victim Counseling which has seen 200 cases of revenge porn in the last one and a half years alone. I have been working on this since 2009, and I have seen innumerable such cases. Almost 99% of these cases are interpersonal revenge porn — usually between two lovers or spouses,” she says.

The crime follows certain set patterns—the perpetrator sometimes posts explicit photos on their own social media handles, other times they impersonate the woman through a fake social media account, making it seem as though the woman is soliciting sex.
The victim doesn’t need to have taken an explicit photo either, adds Haider. “Morphing is quite common. I had one case where a woman’s colleague morphed photos of her and made it seem like she was soliciting.”

Siddharth P, who works at Rati Foundation’s Men Trustline, a helpline catering to minors, says they have received many calls from adult women as well.

“Most often when the image is generated, it is consensual. When it is transmitted to the perpetrator, it is consensual, but somewhere it is re-purposed or used in a non-consensual manner. There are also cases where people are coerced into sending these images,” he says. “One thing we have noticed in the case of romantic relationships where this happens is that there is a huge information mismatch. The guy will know her entire network — her mother’s number, her friends, all of that — and she will know very little about him. That creates a power imbalance.”

As sexting becomes more common, cases have gone up. Major Vineet Kumar, founder and global president, CyberPeace Foundation, says, “It is very common to share images especially among young people. This is happening even on matrimonial websites, where talking leads to sensitive photos and videos being sent, but the perpetrator extorts them instead: he says.

Sexting is now considered part and parcel of 21st century courtship. Sex educator Leeza Mangaldas argues that the problem is not sexting itself. Shaming people for wanting to express themselves sexually doesn’t help —plus images can be morphed or filmed without consent any way. The problem, instead, is the culture that thinks of a naked body, particularly a woman’s, as “dishonorable”.

“Much of the appeal of such content, and the reason why people search for a celebrity’s leaked photos, for instance, is because we attach this huge baggage of shame and ignominy to the idea of a woman’s sexuality being on display,” she points out.

Stop the sect-shaming

Victim blaming and shaming is part of the reason many don’t approach the cops, says Harder. “Police often don’t see it as an offense. They basically try to shift the burden on the victim who has shared the nude,” she says. She suggests victims send a takedown notice to intermediaries —the platform hosting the content — before going to the police to prevent wider circulation of photos.

One problem is there is no specific law that addresses this issue. Most cases are filed under Section 67 of the IT Act —which punishes people for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form. Haider has been arguing for drafting a law that specifically tackles revenge porn.
Richa Kaul Padte, in her book Cyber Sexy, argues that Section 67, in its vague definition of obscenity, leaves much to be desired. A more progressive alternative is Section 66E which “criminalizes capturing, publishing or transmitting the image of a private area of a person without his or her consent.”

Bishakha Datta, executive director of Point of View, a non-profit working at the intersection of gender, technology and disability, agrees. If you see the wording of Section 66E, it is perfect for this because the harm they are facing is a violation of consent, but it is used sparingly. Section 67 doesn’t recognise the harm through the application of law.” Plus, practically speaking, if one goes to the cops because their partner is sharing a video they both privately made, the obscenity provision implicates the victim as well. “The assumption that anything sexual is obscene is ridiculous.”

Another problem is that many victims first respond by deleting correspondence on whatever platform they are on, Siddharth says. “Deleting the evidence makes content takedown more complicated.”

There is an utter lack of awareness, especially among people from economically weaker sections and rural India, on how to tackle these issues. “Many people keep shut because they’re scared of more people finding out. I would say that the real number is about 100 times higher than what is reflected in the data. Often, the perpetrator is known or even a family member so that also complicates matters,” says Kumar.

At the end of the day, Mangaldas argues, removing the media is “like putting a band-aid on a bullet hole”. “The answer is cultivating a culture that values consent and ridding the nude body of this acute sense of shame,” she says.

In her book, Padte invokes author Theresa Sneft, who in her paper “The Skin of the Selfie”, argues that no image is independently empowering or disempowering. “Images, by themselves, don’t do anything, they just are. Instead, she argues, It’s the context in which an image exists that creates its meaning.” In the case of revenge porn, the intention codifies the image as a source of shame or punishment for not complying with the wishes of the perpetrator.

Credits: Times of India

Reference Link: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/how-to-make-sure-sexting-doesnt-turn-into-revenge-porn/articleshow/94430412.cms