Social media giant Meta, formerly known as Facebook, on Thursday announced a number of initiatives in India to ensure the safety of women users, PTI reported.
It launched a new platform, StopNCII.org, to enable women to lodge and track complaints about the uploading of non-consensual intimate images. The company partnered with the United Kingdom’s Revenge Porn Helpline for the platform, The Indian Express reported.
The portal creates hashes, or digital fingerprints, of an image that enable the detection and removal of the picture from the internet. All duplicate copies of an image have the same hash value.
In India, the portal has entered into partnerships with several organisations including Social Media Matters, the Centre for Social Research and the Red Dot Foundation for the initiative.
Karuna Nain, director (global safety policy) at Meta Platforms Inc, said that the new portal “gives victims control”.
“People can come to this platform proactively, hash their intimate videos and images, share their hashes back with the platform and participating companies,” she said.
Meta on Thursday also launched a Women’s Safety Hub. The initiative will enable women to access resources to help them make the most of their social media experience while remaining safe, the company said. It includes specific resources designed for women leaders, mediapersons and survivors of abuse.
The platform will be available in Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bengali, Odia, Assamese, Kannada, and Malayalam, according to The Indian Express.
The company has also appointed two Indians to its group of Global Women’s Safety Expert Advisors. They are Bishakha Datta, executive editor at non-profit organisation Point of View, and Jyoti Vadehra, who heads media and communications at the Centre for Social Research.
The group supports Meta in developing new policies to support women on its apps.
“India is an important market for us and bringing Bishakha and Jyoti onboard to our Women’s Safety Expert Advisory Group will go a long way in further enhancing our efforts to make our platforms safer for women in India,” Nain said, according to PTI.
She added, “We are confident that with our ever-growing safety measures, women will be able to enjoy a social experience which will enable them to learn, engage and grow without any challenges.”
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