A group dedicated to ending sexual harassment in the Marine Corps has called out Facebook for not doing enough to prevent the spread of so-called "revenge porn" on its network.
In an open letter to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg published Thursday, Marine veteran Erin Kirk-Cuomo said the company "has become the reliable host for group pages used to openly mock, disparage, denigrate, and demean the very women who have answered the call of service to our country."
Facebook recently announced more reporting tools to weed out explicit photos, but Kirk-Cuomo argues that the company's policies remain "largely ineffective" and still don't prevent the spread of "nonconsensual intimate photo sharing" in private, invite-only groups.
"We applaud the updates in facial-recognition software in an effort to end the sharing of revenge pornography announced by Facebook last week," she wrote. "However, Facebook has been negligent in removing pages, groups, and users, that actively promote nonconsensual intimate photo sharing and incite sexual violence and harassment."
A Facebook spokesperson didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment on Friday.
Kimberly White/Getty
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
Kirk-Cuomo said that people have been forced to report offending private groups "multiple times a day for weeks" to Facebook before action is taken, and she is asking the company to speed up its review times.
She also asks Facebook to "create closer relationships" with concerned members of the military "to effectively and quickly eliminate groups, pages, and users, in violation of both your service agreement and our military core values."
Facebook recently came under fire when a bombshell report from March revealed that hundreds of Marines were sharing naked pictures of female service members without their permission in a private Facebook group. A follow-up report from Business Insider revealed that the behavior had spread to other branches of the military and more private groups on and off Facebook.
"Intimate images shared without permission - what is known as 'revenge porn' - have no place in our community," Facebook's Sandberg wrote in a recent post. "We will continue to work with safety experts across the globe to find ways we can take additional steps like these to make our community safer for everyone. Technology can help all of us prevent harm and I'm proud of the work Facebook is doing to support communities worldwide."
