Amendments made to revenge porn legislation in Sask.

The Saskatchewan government is taking further steps to stop revenge porn.

On Monday, the provincial government introduced The Privacy (Intimate images — Additional Remedies) Amendment Act, which is to build on existing laws aimed at halting the non-consensual distribution of intimate images.

“The malicious sharing of intimate images is exploitative and unacceptable,” Justice Minister and Attorney General Gordon Wyant said in a media release. “These changes will broaden Saskatchewan’s existing civil remedies to help victims of this despicable behaviour regain control of their intimate images.”

The amendments:

• Extend the definition of protected intimate images to digitally altered copies in addition to originals;
• Allow a person to take legal action if someone has threatened to distribute intimate images of them;
• Authorize courts to order a defendant to return copies of a visual recording to the victim and to try to ensure they aren’t available to others; and,
• Give courts the power to order Internet intermediaries to make the effort to take down or “de-index” all visual recordings of the victim.

“These court orders are intended to make it easier for victims to successfully request that online platforms remove their images, something that in many past instances has been incredibly challenging,” the media release said.

The province passed its initial piece of legislation aimed at stopping revenge porn in 2018.