By Stewart Tongue
YNOT – A Texas woman is demanding more than $1 million in damages and removal of a group of so-called “revenge porn” websites from the web after the websites allegedly not only refused to remove naked images uploaded without her consent, but also encouraged others to harass her online.
In a lawsuit filed in Denton County Court, Shelby Conklin claims PinkMeth.com, PinkMeth.net and PinkMeth.org actively seek stolen, compromising images of young women. The images are not accompanied by age-verification documentation required under 18 U.S.C. §2257, and many may depict underage victims, the lawsuit claims.
Worse, when victims complain or demand removal of their images, the websites’ operators post the complaints online, along with identifying information, further invading the victims’ privacy and encouraging harassment.
The lawsuit also names Verisign and Katz Global Media, the Arizona-based registered owner of the PinkMeth sites, as respondents.
“PinkMeth.com, as well as PinkMeth.net and PinkMeth.org, are ‘revenge pornography’ or ‘involuntary pornography’ websites,” the complaint states. “The purpose of these illicit websites is to solicit and post suggestive and naked persons persons [sic] who were photographed without their consent or permission. Websites such as PinkMeth.com also solicit computer hackers to gain unauthorized access to such files belonging to plaintiff and similarly situated individuals for the purpose of uploading them to the website.
“To further invade the privacy of their victims, PinkMeth.com posts the social media pages of their victims, including but not limited to their Facebook profiles, for the purpose of embarrassing and harassing them and/or encouraging others to embarrass and harass them,” the complaint continues.
Late last week Verisign settled with Conklin and placed a registry lock on all three of the PinkMeth domains, effectively removing them from the DNS root. The sites no longer are visible on the web.
