Actress Amber Heard was on Capitol Hill Wednesday to tout a bill that would make revenge porn a federal crime — after dozens of states, including New York, passed similar legislation over the past year.
The SHIELD Act, sponsored by Rep. John Katko (R-NY) and Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) is a reintroduction of legislation that would make sharing sexually compromising images of a person without their consent punishable by a fine, up to five years in prison or both.
“Nonconsensual porn is one of the worst violations of privacy and it doesn’t discriminate, instead it disproportionately affects women around the world with devastating consequences,” Heard said.
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“Intimate content released into the internet is virtually impossible to remove, further subjecting victims to harassment and judgment from strangers and acquaintances alike,” the “Aquaman” star continued.
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“It can result and often does in devastating and economic, social psychological consequences.”
Heard, 33, said she experienced some of those consequences in 2014, when nude photos of herself and other actresses and models were leaked online.
“The nonconsensual porn that affects me is still out there and remains to this day,” she said. “If it can happen to me it can happen to anyone — and it does.”
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This federal bill would follow revenge porn laws passed in New York in February.
The legislation followed a series of Post reports detailing the effects nonconsensual photography has had on victims when their intimate images were splashed across social media or sent to family members and employers.
Unlike in other states, the New York bill has a provision that could be used to force Google and other internet companies to remove retaliatory pornographic material under court order.
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The proposed federal legislation does not appear to have that provision.
This story originally appeared on Page Six.
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