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Last December, California successfully sent someone to jail for the first time for posting “revenge porn.” Then in February, the state secured its first conviction of someone operating a “revenge porn” site, becoming the first state in the country to successfully prosecute such a case.
At a press conference today, California Attorney General Kamala Harris unveiled the next step of her fight against cyberexploitation.
Harris announced the launch of an “online resource hub” and awareness campaign for citizens, victims and law enforcement to get more information on cyberexploitation. Harris also praised the efforts of leading companies in Silicon Valley like Facebook, Twitter and Google for reforming their policies and working with a government task force on the initiative.
“The reality is that in this new and exciting world, there are vulnerable people,” Harris said. “We have to be committed to making sure that we protect vulnerable and voiceless people in this world of technology.”
Cyberexploitation, or “revenge porn” as it is more commonly known, is basically nonconsensual pornography. The most well-known cases involve jilted exes who post pictures or videos of former partners without their consent. Over the last few years, websites like UGotPosted or Anyone Up? have operated as hubs for this kind of content, prompting a backlash from victims’ rights advocates, the government and major tech companies.
In addition to the California prosecutions, other state governments and even federal agencies have targeted people who operate and use cyberexploitation services. In June, Google said that it would start scrubbing nonconsensual sexual content from its search listings.
At today’s conference, Harris praised Silicon Valley for their help in “fighting a crime that threatens not only public safety, but our civil rights and privacy rights.”
“I cannot emphasize enough how happy they were to step up. A number of these companies have changed their policies, Facebook and Twitter, Microsoft and Google,” Harris said. “We brought them together to create a best practices guide for the tech industry. They stepped away from the innovation they’re doing every day.”
Harris also took issue with the term “revenge porn,” calling it a misrepresentation of what the problem really is.
“[We are] addressing cyberexploitation in a way so that one appreciates the pathology of the crime, and that means addressing the fact that the term ‘revenge porn’ is at best inaccurate, and certainly misleading,” Harris said. “They’re not engaged in pornography … their behavior doesn’t deserve revenge.”
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
