SWGfL 
attended the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) to share its work about protecting women online and present and discuss StopNCII.org – a free online tool that prevents the non-consensual sharing of intimate images online. StopNCII.org was presented as a sea-change solution to combat intimate image abuse, that protects individual’s privacy without intimate images (or videos) ever leaving the user’s device.
The Commission on the Status of Women is an annual event which is the ‘’principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women.’’ This year’s theme is ‘’Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls’’.
As part of the UK side event, new data was presented to show that StopNCII.org has supported over 20,000 adults create cases in the prevention of intimate images and videos from being shared online without consent, along with the announcement that OnlyFans and Reddit have now joined StopNCII.org alongside Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Bumble. Participating companies are able to receive hashes (unique image and video identifiers) directly from StopNCII.org.
StopNCII.org
The launch of StopNCII.org (Stop Non-Consensual Intimate Image sharing) is seen as a significant global solution for protecting adults against online intimate image abuse. Since it was first launched in December 2021, adults who are affected by threats to share intimate images can use StopNCII.org to protect themselves, directly from their own device.
StopNCII.org uses world-first, on-device hashing technology that allows those being threatened with intimate image abuse, the ability to create digital fingerprints of their images, (also known as ‘hashes’). Only hashes are shared with participating platforms, ensuring that the original images (or videos) never leave the user’s device. To protect the user’s privacy, hashes are presented as a string of numbers and letters which cannot be reverse engineered back to the original image (or video).
If an image is uploaded on a participating platform, matches the corresponding hash and meets partner policy requirements, the image will be sent for moderation by the participating platform. If the image meets the criteria of an intimate image, it will be removed and blocked from any further sharing across all partner platforms. Since StopNCII.org was launched, 70,000 hashes have been created.
David Wright, CEO of SWGfL said:
‘’For too long, women and girls have disproportionately experienced online abuse, specifically non-consensual intimate image abuse. We launched the UK’s Revenge Porn Helpline, the first of its kind in the world, back in 2015 that supports any adult experiencing NCII - around 75% of all those that we support are women.
The development and release of StopNCII.org was such a significant moment, applying leading edge technology to help discharge the life-changing impact that individuals experience when being threatened with having their most intimate images shared online. Empowering those experiencing intimate image abuse anywhere in the world to regain control is only possible through the participation of platforms.
I applaud those platforms partnering with StopNCII.org and look forward to many more stepping up and being counted. The more platforms who integrate StopNCII.org, the more we can all take a global stand against intimate image abuse. After all, everyone should benefit from technology, free from harm.’’
Sophie Mortimer, Revenge Porn Helpline Manager at SWGfL said:
“The Revenge Porn Helpline has been supporting adults in the UK affected by the sharing of intimate images without consent for nearly eight years. In that time, we have supported over 16,000 people who have had their lives devastated by this abuse, and we have removed nearly 300,000 individual images from the internet.
But prevention is better than cure, and the development of StopNCII.org not only empowers those facing the possibility of their images being shared, but it continues to slow and reduce the prevalence of resharing of this content. We welcome the commitment by our new industry partners in joining StopNCII.org today: the more platforms that follow suit, the more we can reduce the significant harm caused by this behaviour and liberate people’s lives from the constant fear of devastation.”
Keily Blair, Chief Strategy and Operations Officer at OnlyFans said:
“Non-Consensual intimate images have no place on the internet. That is why we are proud to be partnering with StopNCII.org on this important global initiative. At OnlyFans we believe that all platforms have a role to play in protecting people from harm online and will be joining SWGfL at the UN Commission on the Status of Women to help demonstrate what can be achieved when platforms, civil society and Governments work together. No one should have to fear that personal, intimate images will be shared online without their consent and together we can help make that the case for people around the world.”
Reddit said:
“Reddit’s mission is to bring community, belonging, and empowerment to everybody in the world. In line with this, we work hard to ensure that non-consensual intimate media has no place on our platform. We were one of the earliest sites to establish policies that prohibit this content, and we continually evolve our policies and tooling to ensure the safety of our users. We are proud to partner with SWGfL to implement their StopNCII.org tool and further advance our capabilities to this end. We have already seen promising results from this tool and believe it will help us remove non-consensual intimate media even more quickly and accurately.”
SWGfL continues to invite any platform that allows users to upload content, to join StopNCII.org as an industry partner. Contact joinstopncii@swgfl.org.uk to join the campaign against intimate image abuse.
StopNCII supports any adult victims of NCII, anywhere in the world. Children, across the world, experiencing NCII can use the platform Take It Down (ncmec.org) from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
