A women’s rights group has called for the definition of “revenge porn” to be broadened in Taiwan to allow the preventive deletion of sensitive photographs in the possession of a former lover, as was ordered in a German court.
The Taipei Women’s Rescue Foundation said the ruling “marks a milestone for efforts by many countries seeking to prevent revenge porn.”
In a German Supreme Court ruling published on Dec. 21, the court ordered a photographer to delete all explicit pictures of his former girlfriend in his possession, even though he had shown no intention of publicly displaying the images.
The court said he did not have the right to keep the photographs, even though she had consented to him taking them when they were in a relationship.
“Revenge porn” involves the dissemination of sexually explicit photographs or video footage of another person without their consent, usually to embarrass the person after a relationship has ended.
However, the German ruling goes a step further, prohibiting a person from possessing explicit images of former lovers, even if the materials are not in the public domain. The foundation said in a statement that it hoped Taiwan would follow suit.
The group, which set up a Web site in February last year to help female victims of revenge porn, said many women feel helpless when trying to get their former partners to delete explicit photographs through the judicial process because of the limitations of existing laws.
“If the other party has not issued threats or spread [the photographs], it does not constitute a criminal offense or civil tort, so there is no way to use public authority to make the other person delete sensitive images,” the group said.
“Women involved in such cases have not yet been exposed, but they can suffer from emotional insecurity over a long time, leading to anxiety and helplessness because the intimate images could be exposed one day,” the foundation said.
The group said that Taiwan should consider following the example set by the German court and establish a mechanism to legalize preventive deletion of photographs to offer greater protection to women in a similar predicament.
About 96 percent of revenge porn victims are women, according to the group, which urged women to say “No” when asked to participate in explicit photographs.
If threatened with revenge porn after the end of a relationship, women should keep records and keep text messages as evidence and seek professional assistance, the group said.
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