Sharing sex workers’ images without consent is abuse

For sex workers, safety on the internet can mean life and death. It’s time we put a stop to digital violence.

Posting intimate images of people online without consent is a type of sexual violence for which nobody has found an effective answer. Most people know this as ‘revenge porn’. We prefer to call it intimate image abuse, as sex workers are harmed when pornography and sexual violence are conflated.

Intimate image abuse transcends all boundaries, targeting individuals across diverse communities and leaving behind a trail of trauma and injustice. Existing frameworks for dealing with it are wholly inadequate. They fail to prevent, they fail to remove images from the web, and they fail to provide victims with compensation and support. They even fail to capture the full scope of harm experienced by victims.

Few people know this better than sex workers, who often send images of themselves to prospective clients as part of their work. These frequently get passed on and posted elsewhere, causing the original senders to lose control of where their images end up. This is a violation. Just as consensual sex becomes rape when the perpetrator goes beyond what was consented to, consensual image exchange becomes abuse when the receiver decides those images are now theirs to do with as they will.

The images don’t have to be erotic to cause harm. Sex work is a highly stigmatised profession, and in most countries it remains criminalised. This means that, for many sex workers, their face is their most intimate property. When clients, law enforcement, or vigilantes ‘out’ sex workers by posting images of their faces online, the damage can be immense. People have killed themselves over it.

We at the European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance (ESWA) recently interviewed 52 adults who create and share intimate images for recreational and/or commercial purposes online. Almost half were sex workers, and exactly half had fallen victim to intimate image abuse. This article combines their harrowing stories with the results of other ESWA projects and workshops to show just how much work needs to be done in order for intimacy and safety to coexist online.

Losing control of privacy

Many sex workers promote their services by sharing erotic content online. They post images and videos of themselves to websites, social media platforms, and directly to potential clients via messaging apps.

For many sex workers this is a professional necessity, but within this they must still maintain their privacy to stay safe. When people further disseminate their material without consent, what should have been a controlled and respectful exchange quickly becomes a nightmare. Unauthorised distribution not only strips them of their privacy and violates their autonomy. It also has the potential to expose them to stigma, mental and physical harm, blackmail, and other negative consequences in their personal and professional lives.

“We are only focusing on non-consensual sharing of nudes, but [it was] equally terrifying when a picture of my face was distributed without my consent”.

Lawmakers and corporations refuse to acknowledge this, dismissing sex workers’ concerns by pointing out that they’re engaging in a criminalised activity. But that doesn’t make the harms they experience any less real. Current laws are woefully inadequate for protecting sex workers – or anyone – from this type of violation or providing recourse.

To mitigate these harms, we must advocate for stronger legal protections, greater accountability for platforms hosting these images, and increased public awareness about an individual’s rights to control their own images. It’s crucial to address the complex nature of intimate image abuse and ensure that all forms of non-consensual image sharing are recognised and condemned.

Bared for all to see

“We are only focusing on non-consensual sharing of nudes,” one person told us. “But [it was] equally terrifying when a picture of my face was distributed without my consent".

This is another reason why we don’t use the term ‘revenge porn’. The conflation is not only dangerous for sex workers, as we said at the top, but it also concentrates all attention on sexual images. The harms of non-sexual forms of image-based abuse get overlooked as a result.

These, however, can be just as damaging and distressing. As another sex worker from the UK told us: “Their intent was malicious, they did this without my consent. So here we are talking about intimate image-based abuse and nudes, but all I can think of is how private and ‘intimate’ my face is for me.”

Sometimes these smear campaigns are carried out by vigilantes. “Last year, we had groups of young men going around saunas where sex workers worked, and they detained and filmed sex workers,” one participant from Kyrgyzstan said. “These videos were then disseminated through social networks".

Other times images were shared by law enforcement or with their complicity. According to the same Kyrgyz sex worker, “When police conduct raids, they film sex workers … There is a TV show about criminal affairs and police actions, and they would stream those videos on that TV show. They would say things like ‘so these “night butterflies” (a term used for sex workers) were caught selling sex and the police took them to the police station,’ and they were showing [the] faces of sex workers.”

The cost of such name and shame tactics is born by the sex workers themselves, and the price can be very high. We were told that when faces have been revealed in this way and word got back (or threatened to get back) to sex workers’ families, some were blackmailed and others took their own lives.

“This will not get better until sex workers have the legal right to ask for help”

This is not a practice limited to Kyrgyzstan. Many countries have cop shows that revel in police violence, and including short skirts only helps boost the ratings. Nowhere is much thought given to the people stung by the raids. In Turkey, it is common practice for the police to invite the press to ride along on brothel raids. Images of distressed and traumatised women being manhandled are then distributed widely. Most of the time, faces and other identifiable features aren’t even blurred out.

Such images should also be considered as intimate image abuse. Even though they are non-sexual and not the handiwork of individuals, they were taken and distributed without consent and can cause just as much damage as sexual images.

This is something existing frameworks and even the most progressive forthcoming laws are not willing to truly confront. Intimate image abuse is not just the province of jilted lovers and Hunter Moore, the creator of the first big ‘revenge porn’ website Is Anyone Up? in 2010. Law enforcement, the media, anti-sex work citizen vigilantes, and the thousands of influencers pandering to the rubber-necking tendencies of society are also all guilty of intimate image abuse. They must all be held to account.

Can we be safe (and nude) on the internet?

As we confront these stark realities, it is imperative to reimagine our approach to intimate image abuse. This necessitates a paradigm shift in how we conceptualise justice, moving beyond punitive measures to embrace holistic and community-centred solutions.

First and foremost, ESWA demands the decriminalisation of sex work so that sex workers are able to access justice mechanisms when they face abuse. This will not get better until sex workers have the legal right to ask for help.

We have seen this work in New Zealand. As one sex worker explained, “The general decriminalisation [of sex work] can protect our privacy. Under decriminalisation, sex workers can determine their working conditions, that they are treated fairly, and that they are entitled to the same workplace protections and access to health care as other workplaces. [Sex workers in New Zealand] have the same labour rights as other workers and other occupations.”

ESWA also advocates for an approach that prioritises platform accountability, education, and proactive prevention strategies. By challenging entrenched narratives of victim-blaming and criminalisation, we can create safer digital spaces for all individuals, irrespective of their backgrounds or occupations. And only by centring the voices and experiences of those most affected by intimate image-based abuse can we hope to effect meaningful change and foster a more just and equitable society.

The fight against intimate image-based abuse demands collective action and unwavering commitment to justice. As we strive to create a world free from digital violence, let us heed the call to action and stand in solidarity with those who have been silenced and marginalised. Through collaborative efforts and inclusive approaches, we can build a future where all individuals are empowered to reclaim their dignity and agency in digital spaces.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/