UK-based organization Revenge Porn Helpline launched on Thursday StopNCII, a new digital platform that allows victims of blackmail to prevent the nonconsensual publication of their intimate images online.
As a member of Facebook’s Global Women’s Safety Expert Advisory, the Moroccan association mobilizing for women’s rights (MRA) collaborated with the UK-based association and Meta, during a three years research, to make the StopNCII’s concept possible.
“When someone is concerned their intimate images have been posted or might be posted to online platforms like Facebook or Instagram, they can create a case through StopNCII.org. When they select their image, the tool uses hash-generating technology to assign a unique hash value (a numerical code) to the image, creating a secure digital fingerprint. The original image never leaves the person’s device. Only hashes, not the images themselves, are shared with StopNCII.org,” said Stephanie Willman Bordat, founding partner of MRA in an interview with Hespress EN.
Tech companies participating in StopNCII.org receive the hash and use it to detect if someone has shared the images or is trying to share those images on their platforms and stop them.
StopNCII.org is the first global initiative of its kind to safely and securely help people who are concerned their intimate images may be shared without their consent to proactively detect it before going viral, according to an MRA press statement.
“Women are allowed to share intimate content with whomever they want, but this has never been an invitation of exploiting this content and sharing it non-consensually. This is why we developed this platform to empower victims by giving them a secure tool to proactively identify and remove such online content,” William Bordat continued.
The increasing reach of the internet, the rapid spread of mobile information, and the widespread use of social media have all led to the emergence of cyber violence against women and girls (VAWG), a growing global problem with potentially significant economic and societal consequences.
Despite the lack of data, EU estimates show that one in ten women have experienced some form of cyber violence since the age of 15.
The proliferation of non-consensual intimate images online causes tremendous harm, but a variety of different factors discourage victims from reporting it, according to MRA.
In an online survey about digital violence in Morocco, that included 1,794 women, men, and public actors in law enforcement, justice, and health care sectors from 39 diverse sites across the country, MRA found that 35% of respondents reported several incidents of digital violence per day.
Digital violence tends to persist over time, with 57% of respondents reporting incidents that lasted from one month to more than a year.
According to Stephanie Willman Bordat, MRA will develop an Arabic version of the new safety tool, as well as offer training sessions for women and public actors in law enforcement to introduce them to the process of StopNcii and make it possible for all Moroccan citizens to use it easily.
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