Project

The Traffic in Images of Women: Revenge Porn and Shared Accountability for Online Harm

Program

ACLS Fellowship Program

Department

Communication

Abstract

Social media allow people to connect and share content, but these platforms also facilitate harm, abuse, and online harassment. Platforms’ responses to online harm, which range from simply ignoring it to blocking content and banning users, do little to prevent harm or to fundamentally change any of the problems in online social environments. This project uses the case of revenge porn to intervene in debates about social media platforms’ responsibilities as content moderators by developing a model for shared accountability among perpetrators, bystanders, communities, and the technologies and media they all use. This project investigates the current legal, social, and technological responses to revenge porn in order to build models that provide perpetrators and bystanders the opportunity to repair harm and create systemic change by addressing both their technological and social contexts simultaneously.