We are pleased to announce that SWGfL has partnered with Public Interest Registry (PIR) and Nominet – the guardians of .UK, two of the leading domain name registries to further the removal of non-consensually shared intimate images (NCII) from the internet. This partnership will enable these registries to address NCII which has been adjudicated by a court to be non-consensual.
The Revenge Porn Helpline (a service operated by SWGfL) identifies instances of NCII across the internet, working closely with industry platforms to ensure content can be swiftly actioned and taken down. We currently have a 90% success rate in our takedown efforts. Despite this, we are constantly met with barriers that restrict us from taking action against all instances of NCII that we identify, mainly due to sites that are non-compliant. This effort will leverage the Revenge Porn Helpline’s process of identifying images that have been identified to be non-consensual shared adult images.
Extending Protections
This new partnership with PIR and Nominet will mean that protections will now be extended in the removal of NCII in the Top-Level Domains operated by Nominet and PIR, including .UK and .ORG. The Revenge Porn Helpline team will now work closely with our new partners to identify sites (registered by PIR and Nominet) that are hosting NCII content which has been adjudicated by a court to be non-consensual, and take action towards their removal. This could be in the form of notifying the site to remove the content or suspending the site entirely, if it is dedicated to the distribution of NCII. This process closely resembles the notification system adopted by the Internet Watch Foundation to work with domain name registries like PIR and Nominet to remove Child Sexual Abuse material online.
Sophie Mortimer (Manager of the Revenge Porn Helpline at SWGfL) said: ‘'The path towards making NCII content illegal requires a whole ecosystem of collaboration. Partnerships like this are a key solution towards the obstacles we have faced in getting non-compliant sites to take down NCII content. In working directly with the source of the Domain Name, we can further protections and continue to improve our removal rates. We continue to invite more domain name registries to join the initiative and help us work towards putting a stop towards intimate image abuse for good.”
PIR President and CEO, Jon Nevett said, “We look forward to partnering with Nominet and SWGfL to extend the removal of NCII on.ORG and our .ORG Family of Domains. As two registries with shared values it is important for us and Nominet to support the great work the Revenge Porn Helpline is doing in this space, and together we hope that we can continue to make the internet a safer space for everyone.”
Nominet CEO, Paul Fletcher commented: “There should be no place for content like this on the internet. We have supported the Revenge Porn Helpline for several years and we’re pleased to be strengthening this relationship by joining PIR in stopping this content being shared online. We hope more registries join us.”