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The Source: Revenge Porn Will Be Illegal In Texas

Hollie Toups found herself in a waking nightmare when she discovered intimate photos of herself were being shared on a website with links to her social media streams on a website called Texxxan.com.

Toups contacted the website to try and get the photos taken down. The images, which had been taken 10 years prior and posted at some point without her knowledge, were then used against her as the website host said he was willing to remove them for a price.

This practice is not uncommon. Images and scenarios like these are lumped under the banner label revenge porn, and it is an industry that makes quite a bit of money, but the tide is starting to turn.

Toups sued the website and got it taken offline. She continued to fight and the state of Texas next week will  make it a crime to post these types of images without a person's consent. More than 14 states have laws on the books, and in the last 6 months both Googleand Microsofthave made tools available to get the images out of the searchable sphere.

Do the laws go far enough?

Guests:

  • Danielle Citron, Lois Macht Research Professor of Law at the University of Maryland, and author of the book "Hate Crimes in Cyberspace"
  • Hollie Toups, victim of revenge porn and now advocate for change. 
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Paul Flahive can be reached at Paul@tpr.org