New York law bans revenge porn

New York City, N.Y., Jul 25, 2019 / 12:30 am (CNA).- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed a bill criminalizing revenge pornography – the distribution of sexual or nude images without the subject’s consent.

Cuomo signed the bill into law on Tuesday. It will go into effect in 60 days.

“Our laws have not kept pace with technology and how abusers can use it to harass, intimidate and humiliate intimate partners,” he said after the bill’s signing, the Hill reported.

“By criminalizing the publication of revenge porn, we are empowering victims of this heinous act to take action against their abusers and showing them a path to justice.”

The legislation makes it a Class A misdemeanor to disseminate revenge porn. Convictions may result in one year of jail time, and victims may seek additional civil recourse. The law also permits a court order to remove all of the victim’s intimate images from the web.

Under the law, revenge porn is defined as “the criminal act of unlawful dissemination or publication of an intimate image when done with the intent to cause harm to the emotional, financial, or physical welfare of another person and when the image was taken with a reasonable expectation that the image would remain private.”

According to the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, Washington D.C. and 46 states have criminalized revenge porn. New York legislators had attempted to pass the law last year, but it failed in the state Senate because social media brands and other internet companies could have been held responsible for unknowingly publicizing these images. The content of the bill was revised before it passed in February.

Kathy Hochul, Lieutenant Governor of New York, said the goal of the law is to promote justice and fight violence against women.

“This legislation ensures New Yorkers are not victims of nonconsensual release of intimate images, empowering them to take action to remove images from the Internet and subject abusers to jail time,” she said in a recent statement.