In this article, #NotYourPorn Founder Kate Isaacs discusses the holes in the UK’s current Revenge Porn laws, and how the announced legal reform doesn’t address the porn industry
It’s hard to believe, that in in 2019, I’m writing this article.
It’s even more inconceivable that a UK registered company could be hosting and profiting from explicitly sexual content, without the consent of the subject in the video, free of any legal limitations.
But here we are – and it seems that no MP wants to talk about regulating the porn industry.
Revenge Porn laws don’t apply to the porn industry
Since 2015 in the UK, it has been illegal for an individual to share intimate or explicit images without the consent of the subject in the video, yet the law doesn’t apply to hosting and profiting from said content for the commercialised porn industries.
They not only allow this content, but heavily market it, commonly under the genre ‘Leaked Sex Tapes’. This genre is marketed as a voyeuristic insight into the sex lives of real people – the premise is dehumanising, to the extreme. When companies continue to exploit Revenge Porn because it is bringing hits to their site, the dehumanising aspect is overwhelming.
The issue being that when revenge porn is uploaded to the likes of Pornhub, the content can go viral within a couple of minutes. With the download function, it can remain on the internet indefinitely. As soon as a video gets flagged and pulled down, there is nothing stopping that exact video from being reuploaded by those who downloaded it, ten times over and to multiple sites.
One big player
MindGeek own circa 80% of the commercial porn industry, globally.
They are a colossal monopoly, the kind of monopoly that would never be ignored by the competition watchdog within the retail industry. The competition watchdog even denied the Asda-Sainsbury merge due to their potential to own a monopoly, at a comparatively modest 30%. However, for porn companies that continue to legally profit from unethical images, maintaining an unregulated monopoly at 80% of the market is apparently fair game.
However, MindGeek don’t just own the majority of the big porn websites. They are also a technological conglomerate, with some of the most sophisticated software in the industry.
Ironically, this is the company that the government commissioned to introduce the age verification measures under the Digital Economy Act, to prevent minors from accessing porn – even though MindGeek do not have any age verification technology.
They can’t even check that the content they’re uploading is not child pornography, because they have no functional age verification technology in place for themselves – let alone for use in an immense government contract.
The Porn Ban has since been cancelled, due to a myriad of problems including a lack of enforceability, which partially reflects how shallowly the government thought about their plan and their decision to work with MindGeek.
Regulation of the porn industry is vital
Whilst we should welcome the government’s announcement to conduct a review to reform the existing Revenge Porn laws, there is nothing in the Adult Online Hate, Harassment and Abuse Evidence Assessment to acknowledge companies like MindGeek hosting and profiting from illegal content to begin with.
Ensuring that the blame is with the individual perpetrators is necessary, yet having companies that profit from these images is completely unethical. Usually, the reason why these videos and images reach such a huge global audience are because they are so difficult to remove from the internet.
Within the report, it states that “Revenge porn images may be shared in different ways but are usually uploaded onto specified revenge porn websites” but fails to take responsibility over the future of UK registered porn companies who profit from this now-illegal content.
What now?
It appears the government has completely lost control over the porn industry – or simply doesn’t want to touch it in the first place. Regulation is necessary to ensure we hold these porn companies to account for hosting, spreading and profiting from revenge porn to begin with. Damage control is arbitrary, and damage prevention is vital.
The #NotYourPorn campaign exists to challenge the way MindGeek and the rest of the porn industry conduct themselves in response to revenge porn. We’re calling on this government to put stringent laws in place and legislate the porn industry as part of the Revenge Porn law reform. We cannot allow the porn industry to profit the way it does without any fear of retribution.
To learn more about the #NotYourPorn campaign, and to send your MP an email asking them to lay an EDM, you can visit their website here: www.notyourporn.com
Dont want a sex tape of yourself on the internet, dont put a sex tape on the internet. Or your phone. Why would anyone in the age of cloud storage and data leaks record home porn on their phone? The author should encourage people to use offline storage in regular cameras when recording naughty things. Stop blaming our North American tech companies for not successfully micromanaging every person’s upload.
No one is just talking about mobile phones, and cloud storage? People use many ways to produce and store it, but it doesn’t give any one the right to upload and share it. Its not leaked at a tap of a button is it…… There’s a perpetrator behind it and a company accepting of it both should be held accountable
Not fact: “Ironically, this is the company that the government commissioned to introduce the age verification measures under the Digital Economy Act, to prevent minors from accessing porn – even though MindGeek do not have any age verification technology.”
Mindgeek developed their own solution to comply with UK government regulations and wuill charge other sites to use their technology. The UK government did not commission anyone to introduce age verification measures. They did appointment a regulator though: BBFC.