Following the mass leak last month, End IBSA Ireland are demonstrating to criminalise Image Based Sexual Abuse.

The activist group End Image Based Sexual Abuse Ireland are holding a demonstration today outside the Dáil.

The demonstration will involve selfies of Irish people displayed on the gates of the Government building. The photos represent the past and future victims of IBSA under the current law.

End IBSA Ireland want to highlight the government recommendations over the pandemic to practice virtual sex to stop the spread of Covid 19. Virtual sex involves the sending of nudes, many women who sent photos this year became victims of IBSA.

The demonstration follows a mass leak of thousands of intimate photos in November. Thousands of Irish women and girls became victims of IBSA after files and servers were found across social media and cloud websites.

Speaking about today’s demonstration, End IBSA Ireland said, “As the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill comes to its final stage on the day and as the year comes to a close, we want to remind the TDs who the bill protects. The victims are not faceless.”

IBSA is the sharing of intimate images without the consent of the photo’s subject. Dr Caroline West, a sexuality studies lecturer defined image-based sexual abuse as “the use of intimate images to cause deliberate harm to a person against their will”. She explained that it can come in many forms; photos could be shared from former relationships or taken without the person’s knowledge.

Though a Bill to criminalise IBSA is set to pass, last month’s mass leak of images has left thousands of victims without justice. District spoke to of one the leading activists in the IBSA leak. Katie O’Loughlin explained how the images were found and how the victims were contacted.

End IBSA Ireland will be outside the Dáil from 13:00 today.

Read about District’s investigation into the IBSA mass leak here.