The Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday said that an amended law requiring online platform operators to remove nonconsensual intimate images would take effect today, and if they fail to oblige they could face fines or even be blocked.
The legislature in January passed amendments to four laws regarding sexual violence crimes, among them the obligatory removal of nonconsensual intimate images from online platforms, stipulated by Article 13 of the Sexual Assault Crime Prevention Act (性侵害犯罪防治法).
Department of Protective Services Director-General Chang Hsiu-yuan (張秀鴛) said it currently takes about 10 days for online platform operators to remove the images, but their removal is “a race against time,” so hopefully Article 13 would make them speed up the process and remove the images within 72 hours.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
She said that once the ministry receives a report about the online dissemination of alleged sexual assault images, nonconsensual intimate images, processed fake sexual images or other suspected illegal sexual images, it would notify the online platform operator and the local authority, and the local authority would order the operator to remove the illegal content within a given time, but it must keep the data for 180 days for police and judicial investigations.
If the online platform operator fails to oblige within the given time, it could face a fine of NT$60,000 to NT$600,000 (US$1,879 to US$18,795), and the maximum penalty would be to block access to the platform in Taiwan, she said.
Chang said the ministry received 1,327 such reports from February to June, which is nearly six times the 227 cases reported in the same period last year.
“Anyone can fall victim to non-consensual intimate images,” she said, adding that there have been 888 adult victims this year, of whom 58 percent were female and 42 percent were male, and the majority were aged 18 to 25 (53 percent) and 26 to 35 (35 percent), but there were also victims in older age groups, including a woman in her 70s.
The increase in cases this year could indicate that more people are becoming aware of nonconsensual intimate images and know how to report to the ministry, so they no longer need to worry if they should report it to police or keep quiet, Chang said, adding that only 44 percent of cases were reported to the police.
About 82 percent of the cases of dissemination and redistribution of nonconsensual intimate images were done by online friends, 16 percent by a current or former intimate partner, 1 percent by friends or the subjects themselves, and 1 percent by other people, ministry data showed.
About 35 percent of this year’s cases were disseminated on social media platforms, 33 percent on porn platforms, 13 percent on porn forums, 10 percent on instant messaging apps and other channels such as dating apps and other platforms.
Chang said of the 1,327 cases reported from February to June, about 71 percent had been removed from online platforms, but there were still 63 foreign Web sites that did not have contact info or did not respond, so even though the ministry would try to contact these sites, if they still fail to remove the content the final solution would be to block access to sites in Taiwan.
Liu Yu-chun (劉昱均), manager of the ministry’s nonconsensual intimate images response center, said so far the three online platforms that removed the images the fastest were Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, and that they were able to remove cases involving adults in 72 hours and cases involving children in 24 hours.
She said people who fell victim to the posting of nonconsensual intimate images should remain calm and not give in to the perpetrator’s threats or demands, but regardless of whether they want to report the case to the police, they should remember “not to delete the image, not to draw attention, but collect and save evidence, make a note of the URL and disseminator’s account name and report it to the response center.”
The ministry said the response center’s consultation hotline at (02) 6605-7373 has extended its service hours from 9am to 10pm every day, and victims can also report their case at https://tw-ncii.win.org.tw.
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