Facebook defends 'tools' after NRL scandal

Facebook has defended its revenge porn and fake news prevention measures in light of a memes page identifying victims in the latest NRL sex video scandal.

A generic stock photo of a Facebook app.

Facebook has defended its revenge porn and fake news prevention measures in light of NRL scandal. (AAP)

Facebook has defended its "reporting tools" after ex-NRL player Mark Geyer took aim at the NRL Memes page which falsely suggested his daughter had been caught up in the league's latest sex tapes scandal.

Geyer, a former Penrith player and media identity, has threatened legal action against the Facebook page "NRL Memes" after it suggested his daughter, Montanna, was one of two women featured in the Tyrone May sex tapes.

"It's all bullshit -- it's not my daughter," Geyer told News Corp Australia.

A Facebook spokeswoman on Wednesday said the page was subsequently removed for violating the company's "community standards".

Facebook Australia's public policy director Mia Garlick has labelled the situation "tragic".

"We have reporting tools built in around the site to try to ensure that people can let us know if that type of content is on our service," she told reporters in Sydney.

"We invest in a significant reporting infrastructure to try and ensure we can remove that content as soon as we are aware of it."

Facebook removes content which violates someone's privacy, sexual content such as revenge porn and images that are shared without someone's consent.

"We are increasingly using automation to try to help us better and more quickly and proactively identify harmful content even before it is reported to us," Ms Garlick said when quizzed about the time it took to remove the NRL Memes post.

The social media giant is currently piloting a program to stop non-consensual images from being shared in the first place.

Victims can provide a photo to Facebook which then creates an "image fingerprint" which blocks the intimate image from being shared.

"This is certainly something that we take incredibly seriously and that we are investing significantly in," the policy director said.

May was charged under revenge porn laws and stood down by the NRL on Tuesday after turning himself into police.

The Penrith player was charged with two counts of recording an intimate image without consent and two counts of disseminating an image without consent.

The women in the separate videos were unaware they were being filmed and did not consent to the recording or its distribution, detectives allege.

Under NSW's revenge porn laws offenders face up to three years in jail and an $11,000 fine.

May has been granted bail to face Penrith Local Court on May 1.


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3 min read
Published 7 March 2019 6:04am
Source: AAP


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