Facebook asks its users to send nude photos in a bid to stop revenge porn

‘The technology can recognise only a particular image, not similar ones of the same person’

FACEBOOK already knows about many of our most personal details: the day we were born, who our friends are and where we spend our weekends. But the social network’s latest test may be a step too far for many of its users.

The internet giant is asking users to send it their intimate nude photos in an attempt to counter the rise of revenge porn. It plans to use the images to block ex-lovers and hackers from posting such pictures later on. Facebook has been testing the feature in Australia, and is now working with authorities in the UK, US and Canada to expand it.

After receiving images or videos, Facebook’s software would create a “hash” – a digital fingerprint of the photo – so it can be automatically recognised and blocked the next time somebody else tries to upload it.

The same technology has been used for years to prevent the spread of child porn and terrorist images.

Facebook started blocking repeat instances of revenge porn earlier this year, using the hashing technique to prevent explicit images that had already been posted and then deleted, from being posted again.

Facebook bans explicit images, and legislation is on its way in Ireland to impose a year in jail for revenge porn.

But it is still a major problem on the social network. Leaked documents this year revealed the company records 54,000 cases a month.

The problem is widespread outside of Facebook too, with one of the most famous cases being actress Mischa Barton, whose mother is Irish, and who was forced to go to court in the US to get a sex tape made with- out her consent taken down from websites.

Internal documents leaked this year revealed that the company processes 54,000 cases of revenge porn a month and that more than 14,000 Facebook accounts were banned for posting revenge porn in January alone.

Reporting an image to the company involves users sending the picture over Facebook Messenger, when a customer service worker will check a blurred version of the image to confirm it is explicit.

Facebook will then delete it, retaining only the hash – a string of code that cannot be reverse-engineered to create the original photo, but can be used to recognise further instances of it.

The technology can recognise only a particular image, not similar ones of the same person.

“As part of our continued efforts to better detect and remove content that violates our community standards, we’re using image-matching technology to prevent non-consensual intimate images from being shared on Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Groups and Messenger,” said Antigone Davis, Facebook’s head of safety. (© Daily Telegraph, London)