Explicit Photos of Female Service Members Were Shared Online—Again
UPDATE: Saturday, March 10, 3 P.M.
"This link has been taken down and banned so it cannot be recirculated on Dropbox," a spokesperson from Dropbox told Glamour.com in a statement. "As always, we investigate reports of content that violate our Acceptable Use Policy. If we find a violation, we take down the content and, when appropriate, take other measures such as banning the content and/or reporting to law enforcement."
Original Story:
It's been one year since the U.S. Department of Defense started investigating Marines who shared naked photos of more than two dozen servicewomen on a Facebook group of 30,000 members called Marines United. Now, the military is dealing with another case of nonconsensual revenge porn: A Dropbox folder has reportedly been circulating on social media with hundreds of explicit photos of women in the military.
The folder, called "Hoes Hoin," contains 267 photos of female service members taking naked selfies and performing sexual acts, according to Vice News. Making it even worse, some of the photos show women's faces, their dog tags, or their name tags on their uniforms.
The Dropbox link allegedly first appeared last month in a male-only Facebook group called "Blame Marines United (Non-Butthurt Edition)," which has since been shut down after Marine Corps veteran Erin Kirk Cuomo learned of its existence and reached out to Facebook. Kirk Cuomo is the founder of #NotInMyMarineCorps, an advocacy group.
She also tweeted in support of the women who were featured in the photos: "What is breaking my heart tonight? Not MU, even though that is bad. The number of victims who are blaming themselves for “something I could have prevented” “if only I hadn’t done this” in response to our story. I want to scream IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT #metoo #metoomilitary"
After last year's investigation, the Marine Corps received $18 million in funds to to address the revenge porn and harassment issue, and Congress made it a criminal offense in the military to share nonconsensual nude photos. But that apparently hasn't solved the issue.
Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Carla Gleason stated that the Department of Defense will continue to monitor social media for these kinds of groups. “However, as social media platforms continue to expand, the challenge remains in becoming aware of and identifying victims of cyberbullying and cyber harassment, as well as identifying those individuals committing the offenses,” she said.
This story has been updated.
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