A shelter in the rain

Empowering victims

Li says she has overcome the uneasiness at the nonconsensual materials she has encountered over the years, but she cannot accept the intolerable feeling of seeing online comments targeting victims.

"I can't understand why those who've been hurt have to bear further scrutiny and condemnation," she says.

Jess recalled that after her ex-boyfriend posted her private images online, others made the situation worse. "These people lack knowledge of my story or character, yet they continue to criticize me based on these one-sided details," Jess says, "I wish the city could exhibit more empathy toward individuals in similar situations."

According to Chong, anonymity is often exploited in tech-facilitated gender-based violence, enabling abusers to evade responsibility and accountability for their actions. In cases of image-based sexual violence, victims are always blamed for agreeing to take or record the images.

However, a person agreeing to being photographed doesn't imply giving consent to the distribution of such photos, Chong says. Regardless of the reasons for taking the photographs, it does not justify the dissemination of those images without the depicted person's consent. Blaming victims would not only inflict secondary harm on them, but also serve as a diversion from holding the perpetrator accountable for violating consent and body autonomy.

Tackling the problem at its root calls for more wide-ranging sex education, Chong says, adding that it's crucial to build a society that does not watch, share, or mock nonconsensual intimate content, and that does not blame the victim.

RainLily says that between April 2021 and March last year, it had provided "take-down" services for 171 cases in which 1,342 nonconsensual private videos were reported to have been posted through online platforms. Nearly 90 of them were eventually deleted.

About 70 percent of those who sought help were women and 20 percent were men. In about half of those cases, the victims knew the perpetrators, with 27.5 percent of them being intimate partners and 15.8 percent online acquaintances. 17 percent of the victims had been threatened by the perpetrators when the images were being taken or distributed.

According to Li, she has been contacted by a growing number of people seeking help in recent years. They were from places outside Hong Kong that lack the advice and succor they need, including the Chinese mainland. "Although it's difficult to support help-seekers outside Hong Kong, we continue to offer as much assistance as possible," she says.

In cases where photos and videos cannot be taken down for whatever reason, she says she will go all out to get in touch with the victims. She will explain the situation to them, apologize for being unable to help and ask if they would need further support.

Upon receiving such emails, some of the victims have gone further by consoling Li. They say to Li, "You do not need to feel sorry, as you are not the one at fault."

Contact the writer at oasishu@chinadailyhk.com