“Taking Down Non-Consensual Content on the Internet” Sarita Schoenebeck, Professor, University of Michigan

Non-consensual intimate media (NCIM) refers to intimate content that is shared online without the depicted person’s consent. NCIM is a severe violation of a person’s privacy and dignity. One of the few tools available to request takedown is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). However, the DMCA was designed to protect the rights of copyright holders rather than to protect NCIM victims. I will present our studies of the efficacy of takedown requests. In one study, we posted sexual images to Twitter and then requested their takedown, half via a copyright infringement claim and half via a non-consensual nudity violation claim. In a second study, we evaluated the speed and efficacy of takedown requests using data from the Lumen project. I will discuss results and make the case that the DMCA has been a vital tool for NCIM victims, but it is insufficient for non-commercial NCIM and for the emerging proliferation of deepfake sexual content. However, any new proposals must consider privacy, sexual harms, speech rights, platform accountability, enforcement challenges, and AI-generated content. I will also discuss the ethical considerations in conducting these studies.   

Sarita Schoenebeck is a Professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. Her research examines computational, social, and policy approaches to creating safer and more equitable experiences online. She is the recipient of the NSF CAREER award and Best Paper and Honorable Mention awards. Her research has been covered in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and elsewhere. Sarita received her PhD in Human-Centered Computing from Georgia Tech. She has taught at Michigan and Yale Law Schools and is a Fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology.