Before the Christmas break, the UK government plans to bring back an amended "online safety" bill to the House of Commons, criminalizing the non-consensual publication of intimate footage and "fake" pornographic content.

Jochen Buchsteiner

Political correspondent in London.

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Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said the government "must do more to protect women and girls from people taking or manipulating intimate photos in order to stalk or humiliate them".

The new measures would give police and prosecutors the powers they need "to hold these cowards accountable and to protect women and girls from such vicious abuse."

Publications of intimate recordings should become criminal law

According to the Justice Department, one in 14 adults in England and Wales has been threatened with having intimate photos or videos posted online.

Between 2015 and 2021, the police registered more than 28,000 cases in which private sex recordings were posted online without the consent of a party.

A website on which "women can be virtually undressed" was clicked by 38 million users in eight months of 2021, according to a statement by the Justice Department.

The draft envisages making the publication without consent and the secret creation of image material, such as through hidden cameras, a punishable offence.

The threat of publishing intimate pictures and videos is also to become a criminal law, as is the sharing of so-called "deepfakes" without consent, in which video material was manipulated using special software.

"Deepfakes" replace faces or voices and give the impression of authentic material.

The draft amends an earlier law that banned non-consensual photography of intimate areas ("upskirting"), but left loopholes.

The measures follow recommendations from the independent "Legal Commission" for England and Wales.

One of the members, law professor Penney Lewis, expressed her delight at the tightening of the law.

"Taking or sharing intimate photos of people without their consent can permanently harm them," Lewis said.

With the expansion of the criminal offenses, the new law would now ensure "that more perpetrators of these deeply shameful actions are investigated".

While the draft has been welcomed by several women's and child protection organizations, many aspects of it have been met with skepticism by privacy advocates.

The Open Rights Group warned against "constant monitoring of private text messages".

There is a threat of a “culture of everyday censorship”.

Even before the draft changes were announced, 70 organizations had written an open letter to the government criticizing the Online Safety Act as an attack on data encryption.

The law was debated under Theresa May's government and has since been shelved several times.