Between Court Orders and Platform Policies: Understanding Law Enforcement and Meta Interactions in Addressing Non-Consensual Image Disclosure Abuse

Non-Consensual Image Disclosure Abuse (NCIDA) occurs when one person posts, or threatens to post, sensitive images of another person online with the intent to extort, humiliate, or harm. Though much is known about NCIDAs, almost nothing is known about how law enforcement agencies (LEAs) work with social media companies to address them, especially outside the West. Through discussions with Pakistani law enforcement, and legal experts, and analysis of LEA requests submitted to Meta platforms, we find that platforms are reasonably proactive in responding to NCIDA-related requests. However, their decisions are seem to be heavily influenced by their universal content-moderation policies, which are determined by Western norms that prioritize sexually explicit content but neglect content considered sensitive in other cultures. Our findings contribute a nuanced understanding of the communication between LEAs and social media companies in combating NCIDA, and lead to recommendations for platforms and government policy in mitigating NCIDA.