Ofcom has announced new measures aimed at tackling the spread of intimate images shared without consent online, including sexualised deepfakes and videos of women being raped while unconscious.
The regulator says its guidance will push tech companies to do more to detect and remove abusive content across multiple platforms.
But survivors say the burden still falls on survivors to search the internet for evidence of their own abuse.
Zoe and Amanda were both raped by their partners while unconscious. They say images of the abuse were taken without their knowledge
“This is the ultimate betrayal,” Amanda said. “It’s being drugged, it’s being raped and it’s being shown to the world for other people to see.”
Both women say Ofcom’s latest recommendations are a step forward — but do not go nearly far enough, especially for women who may not even know they are victims.
Amanda said she does not trust websites to remove abusive content voluntarily.
“There’s a demand.” Amanda told me. “And I think whilst people are searching for it, looking for this… I don’t trust that people will do the right thing and the moral thing and take this content down.”
Zoe said many women are now left searching the internet for evidence of their own abuse.
“I recognise that it is a start, but it doesn’t cover women that have experienced a drug facilitated rape,” she said. “We are liaising with lots of women that are coming from a point of hindsight where they think ‘I need to start trawling the internet for pictures of me’.”
“I believe the responsibility needs to be on the sites and the moderators,” she added.
The images and videos are often easy to find online within seconds. ITV News is not naming the platforms hosting the material.
Ofcom says under its new guidance, victims would only need to report an image once through services like StopNCII.org, which creates a digital “hash” — a unique fingerprint allowing matching images to be identified and removed across multiple platforms automatically.
Speaking to ITV News, Ofcom acknowledged survivors have carried the burden of reporting abuse for too long.
“What this recommendation does is say you need to report it once,” Jess Smith, Ofcom’s Principal for Online Safety said. “That hash can then be shared with every site in scope of the recommendation, so victims and survivors don’t have to do the work of trawling the internet.”
But when challenged on the millions of abusive images still circulating online, Ofcom admitted compliance from tech companies is “not where we would want it to be”.
For survivors, the process of reporting abuse can itself become deeply distressing.
“All of this is trauma to a survivor,” Amanda said.
“They’re likely going through a police investigation, which is trauma. They have these images out there, which is trauma.
“They have PTSD and then they’re expected to find images of themselves and then if anything is found of you, it will start off an investigation.
“So another prolonged process of trying to get this video or images removed and then investigated. It’s just awful.
Campaigners warn image-based abuse is rapidly increasing, fuelled by AI and deepfake technology and until platforms are forced to stop this material appearing online in the first place, the burden will continue to fall on the women living with the consequences.
We approached a number of technology companies for a response to Ofcom’s measures.
Microsoft said it “supports a holistic approach to tackle non-consensual intimate imagery and has proactively used hash-matching to reduce harm to victims.
“We welcome Ofcom’s goal of encouraging the use of proactive measures, but it’s important the framework remains clear, proportionate, and flexible – so it supports innovation, respects rights, and maintains public trust.”
Google said: “It is committed to preventing and addressing the distress and harm caused by non-consensual intimate imagery.
Over the years, we have invested deeply in industry-leading protections, including hash matching.
“Tackling this issue requires continuous work, and our approach is constantly evolving, informed by victim-survivors and experts.”
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