1.
Behind the Screen
How Platform-Specific Policy affects Consumer Behaviour of
Non-Consensual Pornography
L I L L I A N S. R I G L I N G
North Carolina State University Libraries
A M E L I A C L A R K S O N
University of Toronto

2.
What is
Revenge
Porn?
www.endrevengeporn.com

3.
What is
Revenge
Porn?
www.urbandictionary.com

4.
What is
Revenge
Porn?
www.cybercivilrights.com

5.
What is
Nonconsensual
Pornography

6.
Legal Journals
Criminalizing Revenge Porn:
● Harassment defense
● The copyright defense
● Right to be forgotten defense
Scholarly Literature
● Who is posting this content?
● Why?

7.
How do users interact with
nonconsensual
pornographic content?
?

8.
Methods
● 20 Posts* from MyEX.com (November 2015)
● 20 photo posts from non-consensual porn subreddits
(November 2015)
○ 10 from OnOff
○ 10 from PhotoPlunder
● Policy documents from Reddit & MyEX.com (November
2015)
*photos of men were excluded from the study

9.
MyEx.com
● No user accounts or
peer-to-peer interaction
● All content passed through a
moderator
● Actively encourages users to
include personal, identifying
information

10.
MyEx.com
● “Doxxing”: 18 of 20 posts
○ Phone number, social media accounts, addresses
● Violent language: 75% of posts
○ Sexual violence
○ Physical violence
● Racial slurs
● Underage content

11.
Reddit
● Has a reputation for being lenient with offensive content
○ Content of Subreddits controlled largely by users though the site does have some posting
guidelines and Reddiquette
● Surprisingly difficult to find conventional revenge porn
○ Found-images without identifying information or harassment
● New behaviour: self-policing
○ Perhaps thanks to new Privacy Policy

12.
Finding One: Community Interaction
MyEx: Yelling into the Void Reddit: Reddiquette as community standard

13.
Finding One: Community Interaction
MyEx.com: Highlighting unintended exposure
Reddit: Users calling each other out for not
following community guidelines

14.
Finding Two: Relationship between poster and subject
● no personal relationship between photo subject and poster
● no captions with stories of betrayal
● little or no commentary calling for vengeful action against deserving “sluts”
● community based on appreciation of photos of anonymous, scantily-clad women
Reddit

15.
Finding Two: Relationship between poster and subject
Expected behaviour from literature: a
community providing validation and
acceptance
Actual behaviour: ridicule and shame by
association
MyEx.com

16.
Finding Three: Community Ethical Guidelines
Reddit
● Ethical guidelines driven by
the community, what users
feel uncomfortable with
● Consumption without intent
to harm deemed ethical
MyEx.com
● Moderators control posting and
removal
● Ethical guidelines driven by legality
● Potential for extortion

17.
Finding Three: What Right?
Reddit
● Right of the subject
● Respect for subject’s right to privacy
MyEx.com
● Right of the consumer
● Aggressively defends right to consume

18.
Questions?
?