European ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ as a Remedy for Image-Based Sexual Abuse: A Critical Review

Abstract

Image-based sexual abuse, defined as the non-consensual creation or dissemination of private sexual images, has been proved to be a form of sexual violence against women. Despite the borderless impacts of image-based sexual abuse due to its online nature, very little scholarly attention has been given to the legal remedies that victims can take in a more regional context. This article advocates for a new joined-up approach that supports victims of image-based sexual abuse to reclaim control through the right to be forgotten under European data protection law. Under this right, the victims as data subjects can request the data controllersservice providers hosting abuse materialsto erase their non-consensual private sexual images from the platforms. Case study method was conducted with Google, Facebook and Telegram to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, focusing on three main critiques: platform policies, reporting options, and removal practice in response to image-based sexual abuse. Based on the analyses of these digital platforms' policies and practices, the research identifies five challenges and limitations: (1) limited extraterritorial application of domestic law while dealing with transnational abuse; (2) ambiguous language about how to remove data; (3) absence of standardised terms to define and address all forms of image-based sexual abuse; (4) lack of liability fulfilments from digital platforms; and (5) lack of multi-stakeholder cooperation addressing the abuse. The research concludes that the right to be forgotten is a promising remedy to protect victims of image-based sexual abuse in this digital era, but it needs a multi-stakeholder approach to be able to keep up with transnational violence like imagebased sexual abuse.