Meta announces steps to ensure women safety on its apps in India

Meta on Thursday announced new steps to protect women users in its platform. The parent organisation of Facebook also launched StopNCII.org in India to battle the spread of non-consensual intimate images or NCII.

Women's Safety Hub, available in Hindi and 11 other Indian languages, was also launched. It would enable more women users in India to access information about tools and resources that can help them make the most of their social media experience while also staying safe online. This initiative will also ensure that women do not face a language barrier in accessing information.

"Safety is an integral part of Meta's commitment to building and offering a safe online experience across the platforms and over the years the company has introduced several industry leading initiatives to protect users online. Furthering our effort to bolster the safety of users, we are bringing in a number of initiatives to ensure online safety of women on our platforms," Karuna Nain, director (global safety policy) at Meta Platforms, said.

Regarding StopNCII.org, she said, "It gives victims control. People can come to this platform proactively, hash their intimate videos and images, share their hashes back with the platform and participating companies."

The platform doesn't receive photos or videos but hash or unique digital fingerprint/ unique identifier that informs the company that the content is violating. "We can proactively keep a lookout for that content on our platforms and once it's uploaded, our review team check what's really going on and take appropriate action if it violates our policies," she added.

StopNCII.org builds on Meta's NCII Pilot in partnership with UK Revenge Porn Helpline. NCII Pilot is an emergency programme that allows potential victims to proactively hash their intimate images, so they don't proliferate on the platform. StopNCII.org is a first-of-its-kind. It has partnered with organisations such as Social Media Matters, Centre for Social Research and Red Dot Foundation to support the victims of NCII.

"We are confident that with our ever-growing safety measures, women will be able to enjoy a social experience which will enable them to learn, engage and grow without any challenges. India is an important market for us and bringing Bishakha and Jyoti onboard to our Women's Safety Expert Advisory Group will go a long way in further enhancing our efforts to make our platforms safer for women in India," Nain said. Bishakha Datta (executive editor of Point of View) and Jyoti Vadehra from Centre for Social Research are among the 12 members of Meta's Global Women's Safety Expert Advisors to better support women on its apps.