In 2013, 29-year-old Ian Barber allegedly posted nude photos of his ex-girlfriend on Twitter and sent them to her employer and sister. New York prosecutors charged him with aggravated harassment, but the charges were soon thrown out. It was not because evidence pointed to someone else as responsible for the disclosure of the woman’s nude photos. Rather it was because Barber did not send the photos directly to the victim, as New York’s aggravated harassment law requires.
Many state harassment and stalking laws, like New York’s, require proof that the defendant directly contacted the victim. Take Colorado’s, which defines harassment as repeated “forms of communication with another person” in a manner that would cause a “reasonable person to suffer serious emotional distress” and that “does cause that person to suffer serious emotional distress.”
As the Barber case shows, much online abuse is beyond the reach of harassment and stalking laws. Cyberharassment typically involves threats, lies that cause reputational harm, impersonations inviting sexual contact and invasions of sexual privacy, such as the nonconsensual posting of nude photos. Although perpetrators may contact victims directly by text or email, they often target them on blogs, websites and message boards as well. Searches of victims’ names feature threats, lies, impersonations and nude images for potential employers, clients and contacts to see. Victims experience fear and emotional distress; they have difficulty getting jobs; their online reputations are ruined. Strangers contact them for sex.
Read the full piece at Al Jazeera America.
- Publication Type:Other Writing
- Publication Date:03/21/2015