Change.org Petition: Urge Congress to Pass The Protect Act, to protect victims of Image-Based Sexual Abuse!

An iCloud data breach in 2014 resulted in hundreds of nude photos of celebrities being posted online without their consent. Uldouz Wallace was one of the victims. She lost family, friends, and work overnight. While fighting to get these images taken down, she realized pornography sites are not required to verify the age and consent of people depicted in images. Uldouz worked with Senator Mike Lee to draft the Protect Act which, if passed, would fix this gap in the law and require sites to quickly remove content created or distributed without consent. Join Uldouz in urging Congress to pass the Protect Act. Urge Congress to Pass The Protect Act, to protect victims of Image-Based Sexual Abuse! 8,555 have signed Uldouz Wallace’s petition. Let’s get to 10,000!

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My name is Uldouz Wallace and I was one of the victims of the iCloud hack and leak in 2014, along with 99 other women in the public eye.  My ex boyfriend took a few pictures and a video of me without my consent and when I broke up with him, he threatened to leak these images and the video. I called his bluff and ignored it and although he didn’t leak it, I was being stalked along with these 99 other women over a two-year span by a hacker. The hacker later auctioned these pictures and videos off on the dark web and it later was leaked.  When I first found out about the leak my heart dropped and I ended up isolating myself for years. I lost everything — friends, family, relationships, work, opportunities, money, followers, reputation, character — the list goes on and on. What looked like a promising future and career turned into trauma and abuse overnight.  What I went through was unbearable, but I was one of the lucky ones that survived. Unfortunately many commit suicide over image based sexual abuse (IBSA), and it made me realize that there’s no laws against this on the Internet. I decided that I want to change the law and set better laws to protect future generations. The laws need to be updated to match new technology. I recently testified at Capitol Hill and helped create The Protect Act. This bill will protect everyone. It only takes an instant for anyone to become a victim of image-based sexual abuse. If you’re hearing about this for the first time, image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) is the creating, threatening to share, sharing, or using of recordings (still images or videos) of sexually explicit or sexualized materials without the consent of the person depicted and/or for purposes of exploitation. It can happen with images and videos through hidden camera, deepfake/editing, AI, hacking/leaking, child sexual abuse, rape, sex trafficking, catfishing, sextortion and prostitution.  These images can circulate fast and be posted to pornography websites, social media sites, search engine sites or shared without consent to other platforms, often before the victim even realizes it has happened.   The cruel irony is that there are currently no federal laws requiring websites which allow pornography on their platforms to verify the age and consent of every person depicted in those images. This is a massive gap in the law, and one that must be and can be immediately rectified. These platforms currently have the technology that is required to erase non consensual content but simply don’t want to to implement it.  The PROTECT ACT fills the hole in existing law that allows pornography to be created, uploaded, and distributed online without the consent of persons depicted in the material. This has led to the victimization of countless women and men who have few or no remedies under present law.  Notably, the bill has robust requirements for websites to quickly remove content, and prevent re-upload of content, once they are notified the content was created or distributed without consent. Importantly, the bill adds criminal penalties for those who knowingly upload sexually explicit content without the consent of those depicted. This sends the message loud and clear that such activity is wrong, harmful, and will not be tolerated. This bill empowers IBSA victims to hold both the uploaders – and the platforms that profit from their abuse – accountable through civil remedies.  The PROTECT ACT is currently sponsored by Senator Mike Lee, but gaining support by both Democrats and Republicans. You can take direct action now to help this bill become a law. Please take a moment to share this petition with your friends, family, and network. You can also click here to contact your state senator and tell them that we need the Protect Act. If you are a survivor of IBSA, join us in signing the survivor letter by clicking here. To further help victims of Image Based Sexual Abuse, please donate to Registered 501(c)3 Foundation Ra & Protect Americas Daughters: http://www.protectamericasdaughters.com Follow me on my social media @uldouz for more updates: http://www.Instagram.com/uldouz

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