More needed to protect Hong Kong victims whose intimate photos were posted online without consent, NGO says
- RainLily says that from April 2021 to March 2023, it had received 646 requests for assistance relating to image-based sexual violence
- Half of images NGO dealt with were distributed by people victims knew, including intimate partners
An anti-sexual violence crisis centre has appealed to Hong Kong’s privacy watchdog to give greater protection to people who have struggled to get intimate photographs removed from the internet.
RainLily on Tuesday said it had received 646 requests for help between April 2021 to March 2023 related to image-based sexual violence.
It helped people demand online platforms take down 1,342 photographs of non-consensual intimate content. Almost 1,200 of these images, or 89 per cent, were eventually taken down.
The NGO said many people wanted to remove individual pictures that showed facial features.
But the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance at present rules that the distribution of intimate images without other kinds of personal information was not a breach of the law.
