On revenge porn in Malawi

It is happening again. Sexually graphic images of a Malawian woman are making the rounds online. By now, the poor young woman, allegedly a student at the Blantyre International University (BIU), must be beyond embarrassed that these pictures of her have been seen by so many people. Some people will undoubtedly take issue with my apparent tone of sympathy for the girl. I stand by her. For one thing, who am I to judge?

According to the Weekend Times, the young woman’s boyfriend released the images online. The real bad person here then must certainly be the boyfriend who allegedly released the pictures online. After all, one can assume that the pictures were meant to be private. We can question the young woman’s judgment in allowing someone to take sexually graphic pictures of her, but we should not question her motivations. She was in a relationship with someone she loved, tried to please, and trusted to be there for her, to protect her, and certainly not to betray her in such a manner.

Unfortunately, such incidents of people using technology to spread nude or sexually graphic images of their lovers, current or former, are on the increase everywhere. In places like the United States, many young teens have learned the hard way that sexting — sending a text message with nude pictures of yourself to your lover — is not a good idea.

They have been shocked to realise that the lover they sent the pictures to went on to send them to many other people, including those known to both lovers. In other cases, a former lover will post nude or sexually graphic pictures of the person they once loved online. In fact, it can affect anyone, male or female, including celebrities.

A former lover to the rapper Eve posted a sexually graphic video of her online. Similarly, the basketball player Greg Oden had a nude picture of himself posted online by his former lover. Believe or not, there are entire websites dedicated to this practice, also known colloquially as revenge porn.

Broadly defined, revenge porn is the practice of using technology to disseminate nude or sexually graphic images of a former lover without the lover’s consent. This practice has become so bad in the US that states like Florida and California have endeavoured to enact laws explicitly targeting the perpetrators of revenge porn.

Other states have laws that, though not explicitly addressing revenge porn, can be used to deal with it when it occurs. Sadly, for most victims of revenge porn, such legal redress comes after the unimaginable humiliation of having their nudity exposed to the world. Besides, even in the US, many cases of revenge porn are dealt with as civil cases and not criminal cases, meaning the perpetrator essentially get insignificant punishment, which brings us back to Malawi.

According to Weekend Times, the police are looking at the case here in Malawi as a case of disseminating pornography, which is illegal. It is heartening to know that the authorities are taking the matter so seriously, but we should do more legally to ensure that the perpetrators of revenge porn receive punishment for their malicious and cowardly act of violating someone else’s privacy and not just for disseminating porn.

Disseminating nude or sexually graphic images of anyone without the person’s consent is an incredibly callous thing to do and an egregiously anti-social act if there ever was one, which is what a crime is.

Furthermore, this is a women’s rights issue because women are generally more likely than men to be the victims of revenge porn. Society puts a premium on the modesty and decency of women than that of men, meaning that when a woman is exposed in such a manner, the long-term effects can be truly devastating.

As new media technology becomes ubiquitous and as Malawians, generally, become more tech-savvy, acts of revenge porn and other violations of privacy will also increase. We must work to ensure that our laws work to protect the privacy of all people, even those who may not have exercised good judgment at some point in time.

The author is a US-based Malawian who likes to comment on the country’s social issues.