By Juan Pablo Guarin-Camargo, SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Syracuse University students are split when it comes to New York’s new bill that criminalizes revenge porn.
According to Rogue Rocket.com, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill into legislation on July 23, making New York the 46th state in the country to criminalize revenge porn.
The bill classifies revenge porn as a Class-A misdemeanor, with perpetrators facing up to a year in jail and paying damages towards their victims, should the latter file a lawsuit.
The law also defines revenge porn 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.”
Syracuse communications graduate Alyssa Riposo told NCC News, “In moments where emotions run high, people can be spiteful. But, in order for people to, like, stop and do things, I feel that, at times, there has to be consequences for that, so I think that it’s a good thing.”
Supporters of the bill applaud its intent on retaking the power from would-be revenge porn perpetrators and giving it back to their victims.
However, critics of the new law believe it doesn’t do enough to protect revenge porn victims.
Rogue Rocket reported that Mary Anne Franks and Danielle Citron, the President and Vice President of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), want to remove the “intent to harm” language out of the bill, believing it will negatively impact the validity of future victims’ claims.
“Every unauthorized disclosure of private, intimate imagery amounts to wrongful conduct, regardless of motive, because every such disclosure is a violation of sexual privacy,” Franks & Citron wrote on their Harvard Law Review blog post, Evaluating New York’s “Revenge Porn” Law: A Missed Opportunity to Protect Sexual Privacy.
Other critics, like Syracuse biochemistry sophomore Husan Usmanov, believes there’s a better way to deter people from sharing other people’s private content without threatening a trip to the slammer.
“I don’t know, stuff like create organizations, like, instead of a law, like reach out to people. Don’t try to put people behind bars. Find other ways to fix problems,” Usmanov tells NCC News.
The bill will take full effect on September 25.
