Facebook Is Asking Users to Upload Their Nudes to Prevent Revenge Porn

In an effort to combat revenge porn, Facebook is asking Australian users to upload their own nudes. We know: It sounds counterproductive, but the strategy actually makes sense.

According to Australian Broadcasting Corp., Facebook has partnered with the country's e-Safety Commissioner to develop a pilot program that will block and remove vindictive image-sharing on Facebook, Instagram, or Messenger. Concerned users are asked to send their nudes to themselves via Messenger. Once the image is sent, Facebook can digitally "hash" the image to create a digital footprint.

"They're not storing the image, they're storing the link and using artificial intelligence and other photo-matching technologies," e-Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant explained. "So if somebody tried to upload that same image, which would have the same digital footprint or hash value, it will be prevented from being uploaded."

According to Motherboard, blurred out versions of the images will actually be temporarily stored by Facebook; however, it’s unclear for how long.

"The spokesperson said that while they are being stored, the naked photos will only be accessible to a small group of people," Motherboard reporter Louise Matsakis explained. "After Facebook discards the images, it will only retain the hashes. The spokesperson said that Facebook is not able to reconstruct images based on the hashes they keep."