Facebook expands counter-intuitive anti-revenge porn approach in US, UK, Canada

Facebook has announced that it is expanding its unusual approach at combating revenge porn floating on its platform to the US, UK, and Canada.

The pilot program had been running only in Australia in partnership with only the office of the Australian government's e-Safety Commissioner.

The unusual method, which is still work in progress, uses a technical approach called hashing to tag sexually explicit photos that a user fears may be circulating without their consent, The Verge reported.

Hashing adds a numerical code to an image which Facebook says cannot be read by humans. The viewable image is then removed from the company's servers once the hash is logged.

Facebook is partnering with safety organisations in the select regions so as to allow people to securely submit their photos, so that the company can block them from being uploaded to Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.

The process includes contacting one of the Facebook's trusted partners. A user is required to fill out a form and upload the images from a one-time upload link. Once the image is uploaded and hashing is done, Facebook notifies the user through an email and deletes the images from the servers within seven days.