WEBVTT

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I have a question for everyone.

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Who in here has a smartphone?

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A lot of you.

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I love my smartphone.

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It's like a daily movie
of pictures, inspirations, updates.

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Everything I could ever want.

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I feel so connected.

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Now, just imagine:

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It's 10 A.M., New Year's Day.

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You had an incredible night before,
with your friends, your families,

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talking about your New Year's resolutions

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and how you get to start
this year with a clean slate.

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Everything is wonderful.

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When all of a sudden you receive
a Twitter notification.

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Open it up and you see

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a photo of yourself, naked,

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staring back at you,

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up on the Internet

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for all the world to see.

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That happened to me.

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Posted by my ex-boyfriend,

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on January 1st, 2015.

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My whole world collapsed beneath me

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in a matter

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(Snaps fingers)

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of a second.

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Can you imagine how you would feel?

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Can you imagine?

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I felt a tsunami of feelings rush over me.

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I felt shame, guilt, remorse,

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anger, fear, sadness.

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So many thoughts and feelings.

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I was a mess,

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and the only thing that made sense

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was the fast, heavy beating of my heart.

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I felt so vulnerable,

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so exposed to the world.

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I tried everything.

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I called the police,

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I Googled until my fingers hurt.

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One dead end after another.

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The Earth opened up,

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and I was falling 


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into an endless black hole.

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For the first time in my life,

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suicide seemed like the only option.

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758 followers on Twitter,

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and I'm sure many of you have 
more than that,

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so you know how this stuff works.

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I saw the gallery of faces staring at me,
just like you guys are staring right now.

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What did they think of me?
What do you think of me?

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I didn't know what to do.

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I remembered that I had 
recently read an article

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about a crime, called "revenge porn."

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Yeah, revenge porn.

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And suddenly, I'm the victim?

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I've always been one of those,

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"That will never happen
to me," kind of people.

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Until it did.

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Twitter could have helped me,
but only gave me a simple complaint form,

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with a two-week response time.

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The police could have helped me,
but revenge porn wasn't a crime.

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And the one who always makes
everything better in my life,

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my mother,

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could only try to comfort me.

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What are you thinking right now?

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Was this my fault?

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Did you ever think that 
all of these phones,

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all of this cameras,

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could be used to hurt us?

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Probably not.

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I sure didn't.

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But why not?

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Two words: trust and consent.

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We trust that our partners
would never take photo of us

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without our consent.

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In the age of the Internet, we use text,
email, and social media,

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to connect, to communicate,
and even to express intimacy.

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Electronic intimacy , it's still intimacy,

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in a world where so many of us 
struggle to connect.

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But the problem is that our laws
haven't caught up yet.

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So, what are the laws that prevent people 
from harming each other on the Internet?

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Unfortunately, there aren't many.

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Yes, free speech is wonderful,

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but revenge porn and online
harassment are not.

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They're assaults against real people,


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and deserve real consequences.

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(Applause)

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Some of you may think,
"Talking about a women's issue," right?

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But this is everyone's issue.

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This crime sees no gender, race, age,
religion, or sexual orientation,

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and these actions don't always
have to be vengeful to make them wrong.

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People post this stuff 
for money, popularity,

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or even as a sick joke.

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That's why this crime is more 
appropriately called

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"non-consensual pornography."

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(Applause)

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The fight against non-consensual 
pornography since my incident

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just this past New Year's Day 
has been phenomenal.

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Companies like Google, Twitter,
and Facebook have finally taken action

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in their practices, their policies,
and in their efforts

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to help the victims.

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Unfortunately, their efforts 
are not enough.

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We need to protect ourselves,
and especially our children,

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for how to deal with an attack.

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We teach our kids many things in life, 
like how to escape the house from a fire,

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or how not to talk
with strangers, but now?

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We need to give them ways to cope
with this nightmare as well.

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You want hear about nightmares?
Collecting this kind of evidence.

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Victims need to take
screenshots of the incident,

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provide the exact time, date, and URL,
and even ask a police officer

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to request the identity and the IP address
of the person who posted it,

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from the website they posted it on,


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just so you have the chance
to prove yourself in court.

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For me,

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it was almost impossible 
to even know what to do,

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let alone do it,

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while I was in shock.

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Fighting for legislative
and technological change isn't enough.

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We need to create a standard 
for Internet decency.

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This incident shamed me, 
but I was not silenced.

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I was asked to tell my story

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at the Capitol Building
in Santa Fe, New Mexico,

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during the past legislative session.

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People need to understand 
the issue of revenge porn,

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because victims aren't fools.

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And perpetrators are using the Internet
to violate people's trust and consent.

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No one should have to
go though what I did.

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House Bill 142:

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"Unauthorised distribution 
of sensitive images,

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makes the publications of such images 
a misdemeanour in a court of law."

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The bill passed both the House
and the Senate unanimously.

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(Applause) (Cheers)

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And on March 25th, 2015,
Governor Susana Martinez

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signed the bill into law.

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(Applause)

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Making New Mexico now one of 24 states

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with some form
of revenge porn legislation.

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You guys remember, when
all of this was happening to me,

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I wanted to die.

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Instead, I found my strength,

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and this New Year's Eve,

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I will welcome in the new year
knowing that no victim

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of revenge porn will have 
to face this nightmare alone.

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And that is knowledge worth fighting for.

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(Applause) (Cheers)