Only 30 online platforms have signed up to an Ofcom-backed register for combating revenge porn, despite the watchdog estimating 10,000 would fall within its scope.
The website StopNCII was set up by charity SWGfL to help track and remove non-consensual intimate images (NCII) online.
It uses a technology called hash-matching to determine whether a particular image has been shared across different sites – but relies on those sites choosing to join the register.
Currently, 30 of the biggest companies on the internet have done so, including Facebook, Reddit, X, TikTok, Pornhub and OnlyFans.
However, the people behind the site say they make up a tiny percentage of the total platforms who should be signed up if NCII – often considered revenge porn – are to be stamped out entirely.
Speaking to a House of Lords committee on Monday, SWGfL’s Sophie Mortimer said: ‘Participation is very low.
‘Ofcom estimates that around 10,000 platforms fall within scope, so we’re currently at less than 1% of platforms that have signed up.’
Ms Mortimer pointed out that Ofcom has partnered with SWGfL and specifically urged online companies to join StopNCII when it began an ‘enforcement programme’ against revenge porn in September.
A news release on the online watchdog’s website reads: ‘Ofcom continues to recommend that platforms use StopNCII’s industry-leading hash matching tool.’
The Home Office has also proposed lending the website statutory backing, which would allow the government to put the power of the state behind enforcement.
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An impact assessment published in April said the use of hash-matching would move platforms ‘away from “waiting until someone reports it” and towards preventing NCII from appearing or spreading in the first place’.
Ms Mortimer told the Lords committee: ‘Some platforms have told us that they don’t think that the new measure applies to them because they don’t consider themselves to be high risk, through their risk assessments.
‘We’ve voiced concern to Ofcom and industry that platforms are not accurately capturing their risk level of NCII on their services. Effectively, they are marking their own homework.’
The regulator has already opened investigations into two unnamed adult sites, one described as ‘image-hosting’ and the other ‘content-sharing’, over non-consensual intimate images.
A spokesperson for Ofcom said: ‘The spread of NCII is one of the significant harms women and girls continue to face online.
‘Ofcom is determined to drive lasting improvements in how tech firms prevent and respond to this abuse, and tackling this issue is a top priority.
‘We continue to recommend the use of hash-matching technology, including tools such as StopNCII, but companies are not required to use a specific product.
‘What matters is that services can demonstrate they are meeting their legal duties to prevent and minimise the spread of this harmful content.’
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