Why do the perpetrators behind 'revenge porn' keep getting away with it?

Looking back at decades of image-based sexual abuse, one finds a familiar pattern.

I don’t typically use this newsletter to reshare stories from elsewhere, but this one felt too important to not share.

Why do the perpetrators behind “revenge porn” and non-consensual intimate images keep getting away with it? And why do the groups distributing such material keep coming back?

That's the subject of one of the most difficult stories I’ve ever written, which was published last weekend in The Straits Times and looks at how image-based sexual abuse has morphed through the decades in Singapore. Read the full story here.

Through the years, a familiar pattern has emerged. The rise of a new technology (such as blogs, instant messaging, social media platforms, or AI) has meant the emergence of new forms of abuse and harassment. While looking for interviewees, I was surprised to find someone who met their perpetrator through an IRC group.

All of this is something that tech platforms and the authorities have often been slow to respond to.

There are remarkable similarities between the experiences of the interviewees I spoke to who have been harassed or blackmailed with non-consensual intimate images in the 2000s (in the age of MSN and IRC) and in the 2020s (in a post-AI world): violation, isolation, and uncertainty about what to do against often-anonymous perpetrators.

For instance, Protection from Harassment Act (POHA) reports are difficult to file against harassers you don’t know the identity of. Platforms have inconsistent policies that make takedowns a challenging process. Those slapped with enforcement actions by platforms often re-upload the offending material elsewhere.

Perpetrators also operate with remarkable impunity. A group distributing image-based sexual abuse material of men that I first highlighted in 2025 (and which was again reported on in this story and a recent article by my colleague) holds lottery-style games awarding images to those who retweet their posts, likely in a bid to gain exposure to more potential clients.

When writing my story in 2026, I was taken aback by how this group continues to operate with such impunity, and appears to be something of an open secret among many queer men in Singapore.

Survivors/victims of image-based sexual abuse speaking to me say that they welcome the much-needed regulatory changes to address online sexual harms (such as the creation of a new online safety commission).

However, they also tell me that they have been the human cost of regulatory lag - or the gap of time between the emergence of a new criminal method and the implementation of effective oversight.

For tech platforms, the time taken to resolve a user complaint is just a figure. But for survivors/victims, it’s a delay that lingers on the psyche for years to come.