Facebook wants you to send them your nude picture. But why?
- The world’s biggest social media platform Facebook is asking users to send the company their nude photos.
- However, their intent is noble
- Facebook will block the images if they are later uploaded as revenge porn
FollowThe world’s biggest social media platform Facebook is asking users to send the company their nude photos. However, their intent is noble. The company is doing this to tackle revenge porn and give some control back to victims of this type of abuse.
Facebook will block the images if they are later uploaded as revenge porn.
In a trial in Australia, Facebook asked people worried that their intimate pictures might be posted by an ex partner to provide the images to Facebook, so that it knows to prevent them being uploaded in future. The trial is due to spread to the UK, US and Canada.
The Guardian quoted Carrie Goldberg, a New York-based lawyer who specializes in sexual privacy, saying: “We are delighted that Facebook is helping solve this problem – one faced not only by victims of actual revenge porn but also individuals with worries of imminently becoming victims.”
Facebook's software will create a "hash" - a digital fingerprint of the photo - so it can be recognised the next time it is uploaded and automatically blocked. The same hashing technology has been used for years to prevent the spread of child porn, and is also used by internet companies to share and block terrorist images, reported the Telegraph.
Facebook's customer support team will then review a blurred version of the image to ensure that it is explicit, and then "hash" it before it is deleted. Further instances of the images will then be blocked.
Facebook is looking to spread the technology to other countries and are looking to partner with other firms.
