Privacy commissioner urged to tackle revenge porn
The rape crisis centre RainLily on Tuesday called for images of people's faces to be classed as "personal data", given advances in technology and so that the privacy commissioner can join the fight against "revenge porn".
The centre said that in the two years since it started a new “Take-Down Assistance” service, it has received several hundred requests for help in removing sexual images and videos posted to the internet without the consent of those featured.
It said 89 percent of the material in question was removed from porn sites and other platforms after its intervention.
RainLily said many revenge porn victims initially seek help from the the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD), only to be turned away.
This is because the unauthorised distribution of intimate images, even where a person's face is visible, is not treated as a breach of privacy unless the material is accompanied by other personal information, the centre said.
A senior advocacy officer at RainLily, Jacey Kan, said the authorities should consider changing this so they can also help victims of revenge porn get videos and photos removed from the web.
"Because nowadays people could just search someone by using the image, instead of using personal data like ID, telephone number, or name etc," Kan said.
"We [also] suggest the PCPD to periodically review and publish complaint statistics that are related to non-consensual sharing of intimate images."
Under Hong Kong law, publishing explicit images without the consent of the individual featured is punishable by up to five years in prison.
However, RainLily said prosecution rates for such offences are low as police often struggle to identify the perpetrators.