'Law change needed to help revenge porn victims'
The government has been urged to update the definition of "personal data" in the anti-doxxing law to better protect victims of revenge porn, as some struggle to get rid of photos of themselves that have been shared without their consent.  The law was introduced in 2021 to criminalise the unauthorised sharing of personal information.  But former privacy commissioner Stephen Wong said the threshold for prosecution was too high, because under the law the definition of personal information depends on whether it is practicable to ascertain, directly or indirectly, a person's identity.  He said changing the definition from "ascertainable" to "identifiable" would lower the bar for such victims to obtain legal protection. “Because of the technology... it is quite possible to identify a person without specifying the identity of the victim. So, that's why the global trend is that as long as it is identifiable, the personal data of a victim need not to be ascertained, and therefore, protection should be accorded with the victim,” he said.  In an interview with RTHK, revenge porn victim June, a fictitious name to protect her identity, said she was one of the cases that didn't meet the threshold for prosecution under the anti-doxxing law.  Her former partner took intimate photos of her last year and promised to keep them to himself. However, after they separated, she found that these photos had been shared on several Instagram accounts.  She contacted the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data for help, but to no avail.  "What they told me is that on this photo, he didn’t put your name, or your Hong Kong ID on it, so we can’t do anything for you," she said. According to the privacy watchdog, it has arrested 26 people for "disclosing personal information without consent" after receiving a total of 1,113 complaints about doxxing over the past two years. June eventually managed to get the images removed from social media with the help of RainLily - an NGO dedicated to protecting people from sexual violence. RainLily works with Meta to remove non-consensual images from its social media platforms. But her nightmare continued when she discovered the same photos printed on the street earlier this year. June reported it to the police, but no arrests have been made.  Introduced two years ago and at the same time as the anti-doxxing law, the anti-voyeurism law criminalises the non-consensual publication of intimate images. It was intended to tackle an alarming rise in such crimes.  So far, out of the 1,207 complaints received and 830 arrests made, four people have been prosecuted and convicted for the offence of "publishing or threatening to publish intimate images without consent". In response to RTHK queries, the police said that image-based sexual abuse cases are complex and it's extremely difficult to identify and trace offenders. They explained that these cases are unique due to the use of overseas social media platforms and false identities by the perpetrators. RainLily's senior advocacy officer, Jacey Kan, says June's experience is just the tip of the iceberg. "The problem of non-consensual publication of intimate images is getting more and more serious in the past two years. In the cases of RainLily, there were a number of 123 in year 2021, but then, in the year 2022, it is almost double. There was law, but then rarely do we see cases got prosecuted," she said.  But June said she wouldn't stop seeking justice. “I don’t think I can give up, because it’s almost giving up myself if I am giving up this case. Maybe the law is not standing [up] for my case... but it is morally not right," she said.