Image-Based Sexual Violence Take-Down Assistance (Ta-DA) Service Report 2021-23
Non-consensual sharing of intimate images is an issue of the public's concern and had become a subject of legal reform in Hong Kong 3 years ago. The law against non-consensual publication of intimate images came into effect in 2021, however, it has limited impact in putting an end to the rampancy of non-consensual intimate images (NCII) on the internet and many people are victimised and suffering. What alleviates the stress of victims is to remove the intimate images from the internet as quickly as possible. Considering the needs of victims affected by NCII, Take-Down Assistance ('Ta-DA') service was launched in early 2021. Through Ta-DA service, we make content-removal requests to online platforms on behalf of the victims.
During April 2021 to March 2023, RainLily provided take-down assistance to 171 cases and reported 1342 pieces of non-consensual intimate content to online platforms, 89.0% of which were successfully removed upon our requests. The vast majority of the victims were female (71.3%) and around one fifth were male (22.2%). Among all the cases we received, about half of them found that the images were spread by people known to them, such as their intimate partner (27.5%) and online acquaintance (15.8%); and about one third (32.7%) revealed that they could not identify the person who distributed their intimate images.
Among the 1,342 pieces of content we had reported, 42.0% of the contents were found on pornographic sites and around a quarter were found on social media platforms (25.0%) and search engines (22.7%) respectively. The remaining were found on image-hosting websites (5.0%) and content farms (5.3%). While pornographic sites and social media platforms accounted for most of the reports we had made, the outcomes of content removal were the least satisfactory for these two types of online platforms. Despite that the pornographic sites are hotbeds of non-consensual intimate materials, the hosts of the porn sites have scarce awareness towards the issue and very few of them have regulations, policies, and reporting mechanisms regarding distribution of non-consensual intimate images. As for social media platforms, Telegram, Instagram, Facebook and LIHKG were the most frequently reported by the victims, the level of responsiveness of these platforms varies from time to time. It is notable that the intimate images spread on Telegram groups also appear on so-called 'content farm' webpages, which exacerbates the circulation of the images.
We not only concern the remedial actions done by the tech companies and online platforms, but also the preventive actions. There shall be specific policy and user guidelines against NCII for tech companies and they should be formulated from the victim-centred and trauma-informed perspective. Tech companies are also suggested to make good use of safety features and technological tools that prevent the platform's users from posting non-consensual materials. To achieve better policy structure and create innovative means to address the issue, the stakeholders of the internet industry play a key role by initiating the discussions. On the local level, because NCII is an issue related to breach of privacy, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) can take more proactive role in addressing the NCII problems, for example, to conduct investigation of certain online platforms where the problem of NCII is serious and publicise reports setting out the investigation results.
未經同意下發布私密影像成為社會關注的現象，並在三年前成為香港法律改革的議題。針對未經同意發布私密影像的法律於 2021 年生效，然而，該法律對於遏止網絡上未經同意散佈私密影像（NCII）的泛濫問題發揮的影響有限，許多人仍然身受其害、深受其苦。對於受害人而言，要減低他們遭受的壓力，就是將私密影像儘快從網絡移除。因應這群受害人的需求，「下架支援」服務於 2021 年初推出。通過此服務，我們代表受害人向相關的網絡平台提出移除內容的要求。
在 2021 年 4 月至 2023 年 3 月期間，風雨蘭為 171 宗個案提供了下架支援，並向網上平台舉報了 1,342 項未經同意下遭發布的私密影像內容，當中 89.0％最後成功下架。絕大多數服務使用者為女性（71.3%），約五分之一為男性（22.2%）。在接獲的個案當中，大約有一半的侵犯者是受害人認識的人，例如：親密伴侶（27.5％）和網友（15.8％）；另有三分之一的個案表示不知道散布者的身分（32.7％）。
至於我們向網上平台舉報的1342件私密影像內容中，有42.0%出現在色情網站內，另外有四分之一在社交媒體平台（25.0％）和搜索引擎（22.7％），其餘的則出現在影像托管網站（5.0%）和內容農場（5.3%）。色情網站和社交媒體是我們最常檢舉的網絡平台，這兩類網站的下架成效同時也是最不理想的。儘管色情網站是散布未經同意私密影像的溫床，但該類網站的營運商對於這個問題的意識薄弱，甚少有制定針對未經同意發布私密影像的守則、政策和檢舉機制。在社交媒體方面，服務使用者最頻常向我們檢舉的網絡平台是 Telegram、Instagram、Facebook 和連登，這些平台對我們提出的檢舉所給予回應不一。值得注意的是，在Telegram群組中散布的私密影像通常同時出現在「內容農場」上，加劇了影像的擴散。
我們關注的不僅是科技公司和網絡平台採取的補救措施，還包括預防性措施。科技公司應制定針對未經同意發布私密影像的具體政策和用戶指引，而且它們的制訂應該以受害人為中心、並能體現創傷知情的角度。我們也建議這些科技公司能善用安全功能和技術工具，用來防止平台的用戶上載當事人不同意發布的內容。要推動更好的政策結構，並研發創新方式去解決此問題，互聯網行業的持分者在推動相關的討論起著關鍵性作用。就本地層面而言，因為未經同意發放私密影像本身是屬於侵犯個人資料私隱的行為，個人資料私隱專員公署可以採取更主動的角色，例如公署可以針對問題嚴重的網絡平台進行調查並發表報告予公眾查閱。