New York Post

NYC eyes ban on malicious sex posts

- Gabrielle Fonrouge, Yoav Gonen and Kirstan Conley

The City Council is poised to criminaliz­e “revenge porn” locally following years of inaction by state lawmakers — who have let a similar bill languish in Albany since 2014.

Under a proposal by Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Queens), anyone who posts someone’s “intimate image” without permission could be sent to jail for a year and slapped with a $1,000 fine.

The legislatio­n would also expose offenders to civil penalties — including “compensato­ry and punitive damages” — even without a criminal conviction.

Lancman’s bill — which has the support of Mayor de Blasio — is being “primed” for a vote by the Public Safety Committee, his office said Friday.

Assemblyma­n Ed Braunstein (D-Bayside) introduced similar legislatio­n in Albany three years ago, but it has yet to win the support of the Codes Committee.

“There’s people who blame the victim for taking the pictures or allowing that significan­t other to take the pictures in the first place,” a statehouse source familiar with the matter said.

Codes Committee Chairman Joseph Lentol (D-Brooklyn) called Braunstein’s bill “so damaging to free speech that it’s unconstitu­tional.”

“It needs to be narrowly drawn enough to be limited to harassing or stalking or threatenin­g or causing them serious harm . . . without burdening protected speech.”

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