Platforms as Crime Scene, Judge, and Jury: How Victim-Survivors of Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery Report Abuse Online

TL;DR

This study explores how online platforms handle reports of non-consensual intimate imagery, revealing systemic issues that exacerbate victim-survivors' trauma and suggesting redesigns to improve support and justice.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into victim-survivors' reporting experiences and applies institutional betrayal theory to identify intervention points for platform redesign and policy change.

Findings

Reporting processes are hostile and opaque

Platforms respond inconsistently to reports

Current systems often fail to provide meaningful action

Abstract

Non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), also known as image-based sexual abuse (IBSA), is mediated through online platforms. Victim-survivors must turn to platforms to collect evidence and request content removal. Platforms act as the crime scene, judge, and jury, determining whether perpetrators face consequences and if harmful material is removed. We present a study of NCII victim-survivors' online reporting experiences, drawing on trauma-informed interviews with 13 participants. We find that platform reporting processes are hostile, opaque, and ineffective, often forcing complex harms into narrow interfaces, responding inconsistently, and failing to result in meaningful action. Leveraging institutional betrayal theory, we show how platforms' structures and practices compound harm, and, in doing so, surface concrete intervention points for redesigning reporting systems and shaping policy to better support victim-survivors