Al Franken Urges FBI To Prosecute "Revenge Porn"

mi contributes this excerpt from National Journal: "Sen. Al Franken is urging the FBI to more quickly and aggressively pursue and respond to reports of revenge porn, marking a rare burst of attention on a controversial topic about which Congress has typically been quiet. In a letter to FBI Director James Comey, the Minnesota Democrat asked for more information about the agency's authority to police against revenge porn, or the act of posting explicit sexual content online without the subject's consent, often for purposes of humiliation and extortion. Its popularity has ballooned in recent years, and victims are disproportionately women." Here's Franken's letter.

Comments

Once a clown, always a clown.

[dfenstrate]

The reason the FBI isn't doing more to combat revenge porn is thus: It's not illegal.
I would expect Franken, or at least someone who works for him, to know this. Perhaps he just wants it declared illegal by executive fiat, as is the practice with this administration.
But really, this ploy, and Slashdot's new social-justice-warrior driven coverage of it, is driven more by a desire to distract everyone from foreign events, Hillary's email server, and Obama's frequent and blatant power grabs.
That's actually kind of funny, now that I think of it. There's been no story posted at all about Clinton's email shenanigans. Well, we know who Dice has thrown their lot in with.

Re:c'mon

[denzacar]

A girl at my daughter's high school was a victim of revenge porn. She killed herself.

Sounds more like she was a victim of suicide. Caused by mental illness.
And yes.
I am saying that anyone who decides to kill themselves because of their "honor and reputation" being "sullied" is either mentally ill or a fucking moron. Or both.

This is not 1st century B.C.
"Fate worse than death" and such shit is a retarded concept relegated to myth and bodice ripper literature.
Or religious fanaticism.

If anyone, people parroting such messages of "OMG! Reputation!" to others should be put on trial for endangerment of mentally inept persons in their care.
If someone's solution to trolling is suicide, that someone needs professional help.
If their relatives/caretakers just shrugs off such obvious mental issues - they should be investigated and if possible prevented from doing similar harm in the future.

That is far from an isolated case.

By definition, what you are describing is a VERY isolated, ANECDOTAL case.
Unless you have some well researched data pointing to an epidemic of kids offing themselves, clearly caused by someone they were dumb enough to let into their pants later posting a photo of their wee-wee without permission.
And not something else... like undiagnosed mental illness and/or shitty parenting.

Also, it is bullshit. If it were true there'd be a huge Facebook-Twitter-whatever spike.
There isn't one. The rate of suicide among teens is pretty steady, and it is among lower rates.
Suicide rate also generally being FAR higher among males.

So your "not an isolated case" is PURE UNADULTERATED BULLSHIT!

To suggest that this isn't traumatic, and that the victims somehow deserve it, is asinine.

No.
To suggest that there is an epidemic of pixel-related suicides is a vile and dishonest setup of a straw man.
So is implying blame of "attacking a victim" on anyone saying otherwise.
And same goes for putting words in other people's mouth.

On the other hand, all that bullshit straw man argumentation does not refute the fact that it is prudent to practice restraint with recordings of one's private parts or actions one does not want the whole world to see.

Also, suggesting that it was sextrolling that caused the suicide and not some other underlying issue...
That's not just counterproductive - that's perpetuating a "suicide as solution for stained honor" myth.

People will go on for decades with untreated PTSD and years with clinical depression before they decide to "end it all".
That's suffering daily mental torture and still pushing on.
But a naked photo posted online will make a sane person snap instantly?

There is something VERY wrong with your view of the world if you believe that happy crap.