Blackmail

BLACKMAIL
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BLACKMAIL IS THE CRIME OF THREATENING TO REVEAL EMBARRASSING OR

DAMAGING INFORMATION ABOUT A PERSON TO THE PUBLIC, FAMILY OR
ASSOCIATES UNLESS THAT PERSON BUYS THE BLACKMAILER'S SILENCE.
Because the information is usually true, it is not revealing the

information that is criminal, but demanding money – or other
favours – in return for not releasing the information.
A blackmailer's “price” can also include sexual favours or that the

person stay in a relationship.
Both emotional and financial blackmail are forms of extortion.
Online blackmail can involve the posting of intimate photos on

so-called 'revenge porn' websites (sites that maliciously, and
without authorisation, publish intimate images) with demands for
money to remove the photos.
There is also a disturbing related form of blackmail – where neither

money nor favours are demanded – but a price is exacted all the
same. Intimate images of women are stolen (often through illegal hacking) and then posted
online. The photos may be posted along with home and work contact information,
encouraging viewers to harass the woman. The price these blackmailers seek is humiliation
of the other.
In a world where a female judge in Canada was suspended “because her husband put onto
the web images taken in intimacy of her”, rather than the authorities going after the man
who violated her privacy, blackmail and related violence are serious threats for women and
girls.
'Revenge porn' is in fact a gross violation of a woman's privacy, where private and personal
video and photographic images are published without consent onto various websites for
the purposes of extortion, blackmail and/or humiliation. This is an act of violence and should
not be conflated with pornographic content.
ONLINE BLACKMAIL IS A MIXED BAG WHERE
BLACKMAILERS MAY STEAL INTIMATE IMAGES
OR FAKE THEM. THE PRICE DEMANDED MAY
BE MONEY OR PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL
CONTROL OF THE PERSON BEING
BLACKMAILED. IN THE CASE OF 'REVENGE
PORN' WITHOUT FINANCIAL MOTIVE, THE
PRICE SEEMS TO BE PURE HUMILIATION OF
WOMEN.
HOW PEOPLE EXPERIENCE BLACKMAIL
PARTNER SURVEILLANCE
TO OBTAIN SEX/CONTROL
“After two weeks of this, I told David we needed to
stop talking. He then told me he’d recorded everything
I’d done on camera and planned on releasing it if I
didn't have sex with him.”
“My parents said they weren't upset with me, but I

could still grasp their feeling of disappointment. I lived
in a constant state of shame. I felt like I didn't deserve
to live.”
“When my pictures were released, I decided a career

as a musician or actress were completely out of the
question. A job in the public eye could be ruined over a
mistake I made at a young age.”
PHOTOS HELD TO SILENCE

“The perpetrators of the Shakti Mills gang rape had gotten
away with it before, and expected to get away with it again,
assuming that the threat to reveal photographs of her nude
and violated body would ensure the victim did not seek
justice. She did, and the very photographs that empowered
the men will now incriminate them.”
VIDEOS TAKEN WITHOUT

CONSENT FOR FINANCIAL GAIN
“According to Philippine National Police Chief Alan
Purisima, the syndicates had created provocative, alluring
and entirely fictitious social media accounts to entice
unwitting victims into live cybersex activities. The criminal
groups would then secretly record the footage, before
threatening to expose the victims to their friends and
families unless they handed over between US$500 and
US$2,000.”
'REVENGE PORN' FOR

FINANCIAL GAIN
“Some websites have been set up in far-flung territories
specifically to host revenge porn and will only remove
photographs on payment of a fee.”
IMAGES STOLEN FOR

FINANCIAL GAIN
“The FBI says its learned the real secret behind the
success of the nasty revenge porn website
isanyoneup.com: The site operator, 27-year-old Hunter
Moore, was paying a hacker to steal nude photos of
innocent people right from their email accounts.”
Moore’s site began as a revenge porn site, inviting

embittered ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends to submit
explicit photos of their former partners. But to keep
populating the site with new images (needed to keep the
reported monthly advertising fees of thousands of
dollars), Moore allegedly instructed Evens to hack email
accounts to steal private photos, for which he paid Evens
$200 a week.”
PHOTO MANIPULATION
TO HUMILIATE
“One picture showed the person performing a sex act. She
says someone set up an imposter site, leaving settings on
'public' for the world to see. Only two weeks ago did she tell
her mother and father.
“Ali is Muslim. Her faith, she says, values integrity and

reputation.”
“She says she asked the social media giant repeatedly over
the course of the next four and a half months to take down
the photos. They only did she says after she got police
involved. They sent Facebook a subpoena while
investigating.”
“She says she's been so humiliated that Facebook should

pay her 10 cents for every user they have.”
GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE
FOR POWER
“Everyone has secrets - that is what people realise too
late when a surveillance society falls softly into place.”
“If you are a recovering alcoholic, make a pass at

someone of the same gender, have a gambling problem,
suffer from bipolar illness, or have had a conversation
with your accountant about your taxes that skirted what
was proper, are you ready to be 'outed'?”
“OFFICIAL SURVEILLANCE HAS BEEN

MARKETED AS A NATIONAL-SECURITY
IMPERATIVE. IN FACT, IT GIVES THE
STATE THE POWER TO BLACKMAIL
ANYONE IT WISHES.”
NAOMI WOLF
RELATED RIGHTS
YOUR RIGHT TO PRIVACY

Article 12, Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary
interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour
and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference
or attacks.”
Blackmail often involves doxing, which is hacker slang for publishing someone's personal
contact information online to intimidate or punish them. Doxing is an obvious violation of your
right to privacy and anyone who does this without your permission is breaking the law.
Generally, in law, the right to privacy trumps freedom of expression.
People who post to 'revenge porn' sites use the anonymity the internet can give them to take
advantage of the fact that authorities are only just beginning to understand this crime, but
legislation is emerging. In the first half of 2014, nine US states passed legislation to specifically
prohibit the unauthorised posting of images.
In Europe, there is also a Right to be Forgotten, which can be used to demand that search
engines remove links with personal information because it is irrelevant. Interestingly, the
burden of proof is now on the search engine to prove that the data cannot be deleted because
it is still relevant. The law applies to all companies, including those outside the EU, which serve
European citizens.
YOUR RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Article 19, Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and
to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.”
Like most online violence, blackmail is often used to silence women. This means that
preventing tech-related violence against women is not in opposition to free speech, but rather
in line with it.
If your freedom of expression is being challenged primarily because of a private

demonstration of sexuality, the blackmailers are trying to punish or control you using the
censure and/or shame our patriarchal societies put on women and their naked bodies. Women
have a right to be sexual; when we stop shaming women's sexuality, so-called 'revenge porn'
will diminish in power.
YOUR RIGHT TO FREEDOM FROM VIOLENCE

United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women: “States should
condemn violence against women and should not invoke any custom, tradition or religious
consideration to avoid their obligations with respect to its elimination. States should pursue by
all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating violence against women... [This
includes] any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical,
sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or
arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”
Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and
domestic violence: “Parties shall take the necessary legislative and other measures to promote
and protect the right for everyone, particularly women, to live free from violence in both the
public and the private sphere.”
Intimate photos or videos that a couple may take consensually can become a blackmail tool if
one of the partners threatens to share them without consent. This is violence in itself, but there
are also cases where women are forced to endure further violence by remaining in unwanted
relationships or engaging in undesired sexual activities because of blackmail.
YOUR RIGHT TO PROTECT YOUR ARTISTIC WORK

Article 27, Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to the protection of
the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of
which he is the author.”
Copyright establishes two rights – economic and moral. The moral rights of copyright allow
you to claim authorship of a photo or video and the right to prohibit or authorise its
distribution.
Photographs and videos are considered artistic productions. Some women have used
copyright laws to register intimate images they took of themselves and were later misused
without their consent in order to build a legal case for reclaiming ownership and demanding
withdrawal from the public domain.
The Berne Convention guarantees that copyright protection is obtained automatically; there is
no need for registration or other formalities. Some national copyright offices and laws allow
you to register works, which may facilitate legal cases.

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BLACKMAIL

BLACKMAIL IS THE CRIME OF THREATENING TO REVEAL EMBARRASSING OR

Because the information is usually true, it is not revealing the

A blackmailer's “price” can also include sexual favours or that the

Both emotional and ﬁnancial blackmail are forms of extortion.

Online blackmail can involve the posting of intimate photos on

There is also a disturbing related form of blackmail – where neither

HOW PEOPLE EXPERIENCE BLACKMAIL

“My parents said they weren't upset with me, but I

“When my pictures were released, I decided a career

PHOTOS HELD TO SILENCE

VIDEOS TAKEN WITHOUT

'REVENGE PORN' FOR

IMAGES STOLEN FOR

Moore’s site began as a revenge porn site, inviting

“Ali is Muslim. Her faith, she says, values integrity and

“She says she's been so humiliated that Facebook should

“If you are a recovering alcoholic, make a pass at

“OFFICIAL SURVEILLANCE HAS BEEN

YOUR RIGHT TO PRIVACY

YOUR RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

If your freedom of expression is being challenged primarily because of a private

YOUR RIGHT TO FREEDOM FROM VIOLENCE

YOUR RIGHT TO PROTECT YOUR ARTISTIC WORK

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