Fighting the beast of image-based sexual abuse. Part 1—the criminal law and platform regulation

This article is Part 1 of a two-part series of articles on Image-Based Sexual Abuse, the non-consensual production and dissemination through social media platforms and search engines of intimate and sexual images and videos, including synthetic images (‘deepfakes’). Part 1 explains the harms caused by IBSA to victims and considers two legal frameworks for countering it, namely the criminal law and platform regulation. It analyses the newly enacted criminal legislations on the Federal level in the USA (Take It Down Act, TIDA) and in the UK (Online Safety Act, OSA). The Article explains that because of the considerable challenges of prosecution, criminal law by itself is insufficient. It then explains the concept of platform regulation and considers the frameworks for platform regulation in TIDA and OSA. A major challenge examined in this context is jurisdictional reach of the law and cross-border enforcement necessary to make these platform regulation frameworks effective. It concludes by synthesizing how the criminal and regulatory framework interact.