Revenge porn is just one tool in a harasser's toolbox.

Description

Revenge porn is only one form of online harassment that disproportionately affects women and often goes unreported. The attacks can range from threatening and degrading messages to the posting of personal information like home addresses and Social Security numbers.

Danielle Keats Citron, law professor at the University of Maryland, is about to publish a book on cyber rights, where she analyses revenge porn.

"Revenge porn is just one tool in a harasser's toolbox", says Citron. Often you see victims being threatened with sexual violence, or with any kind of physical violence. The abuse can take forms of threats of violence, privacy invasions, naked pictures and doctored photographs, revelations of someone's home address. It can be lies that suggest someone's interested in anonymous sex. Individuals set up whole sites devoted to other individuals, to basically burning their reputation and ensuring they basically have no chance of getting employed.

"So when the first ten pages of a Google search for your name are about how you’re a bitch, have herpes, shouldn't be trusted or are financially irresponsible, it's not that employers believe the information, it's that you don't want to hire someone who could put your own reputation at risk", points Citron.

The author considers that one may think of revenge porn as discrimination or a civil-rights problem because of the demeaning messages it’s sending.