In this new era, a new sort of revenge has been increasingly reported i.e. Revenge Pornography or Non-consensual pornography which has been resulted in causing both emotional distress as well as physical harassment globally. In this article, we will be studying about how social media and Internet platforms have been the main tool for the culprit using this approach for revenge.

When we talk about revenge, it can be both harmless as well as lethal for an individual. In case of hurting or causing harm to someone, the kind of revenge can be of any level and there can be many ways of taking a revenge. Recently, it has been observed in an increase of revenge pornography. Now the question arises, what is REVENGE PORN? It is disclosing of sexually explicit images or videos of an individual on social media platforms without their consent, basically by a former sexual partner for taking revenge by creating an embarrassing situation for them. It is also known as non-consensual pornography. The major reason which led to an increase in this sort of sexual abuse is the Internet and social media. These two platforms have made stalking and harassment easy. It provides an immediate and free of cost approach for taking such sort of revenge. Sexual abuse and harassment against women are something which exists for decades but social media and digital technology upgrades it’s scaling up to level in a more transformed way. So far reported legal cases, approximately 80% of the victims are women. Even many of the celebrities such as Emma Watson, Kylie Jenner, Marisa Tomei, Jennifer Lawrence, Rose McGowan, Katie Cassidy, Alyssa Arce, Dylan Penn etc. have been also listed under the category of victims of revenge pornography. This rising issue is causing both emotionally and socially damage to the victims.

In some cases, personal information is also disclosed along with nude pictures which could result in physical threatening. After being attacked through this mode some of them opt suicide as they believe it is the last option left with them. At present, there are up to 30 UK websites hosting revenge porn.

It has been revealed that 93% of the victims suffered significant emotional distress, 82 percent claimed for significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important functioning areas and due to this about 51% committed suicide.

In April 2015, it was considered as a criminal activity in UK with an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill that stated it would be an offence for a person to "publish a private sexual image of another identifiable person without their consent where this disclosure causes distress". Traders of this can also be prosecuted under the Malicious Communications Act or the Stalking and Harassment Act. The time period for distributors be sentenced to prison in case of distributing revenge porn is maximum two years. Last year in September, it was reported that about 206 people had been prosecuted under the “revenge porn” law since it came into work.

Revenge pornography is basically a breakdown of trust between two people and the main purpose for it is to humiliate publicly. But up till now, it hasn’t been widely considered as a crime so there are very few laws against it which haven’t solve this problem from its roots and it still avails. In short, laws which are against this are very slow to emerge. But for many social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube it has been a major issue and has been kept as a priority. As for this FB community has taken a step forward and stated that “remove any content that threatens or promotes sexual violence". FB's Community Standards warn that any content that threatens or promotes sexual violence or exploitation shall be removed. But a lot more steps need to be taken for fighting against such a global issue. Victims should take legal actions and fight for their right. They should stand against together, raise their voices in spite of being quiet and getting harassed then only the government will be in their support and will take some crucial and strict actions against this.