Franks on Non-consensual Pornography

Mary Anne Franks (George Washington University - Law School) has posted an abstract of The Criminalization of Non-consensual Pornography in the United States on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

 

The legal, technological, and social landscape of nonconsensual pornography in the United States has changed dramatically over the last decade. The number of U.S. states criminalizing the abuse as increased from three to 48; major social media and internet companies have banned nonconsensual pornography from their platforms and services; and nonconsensual pornography, now also commonly referred to ‘nonconsensual intimate imagery’ or ‘image-based sexual abuse’, is widely recognized as a form of abuse. This transformation is largely attributable to the efforts of courageous victims of this abuse and the civil society advocacy organizations that support them, in particular Dr. Holly Jacobs and the organization she founded in 2013, the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI). But challenges remain. Because no federal law prohibiting this abuse has been enacted, and the definition and classification of nonconsensual pornography varies by jurisdiction, victims are left with an inconsistent and ineffective legal patchwork for this devastating and frequently multijurisdictional crime.