Singapore – Women should be allowed to watermark a recipient’s name on their nude photos sent via the messaging app Telegram to prevent mass forwarding has won an award at Hackathon for a Better World 2021.
Go Women, a team of four students from the Singapore Management University (SMU) after two months of research, proposed the idea at Hackathon for a Better World, an event targeting the challenges of online harms especially against women and girls.
They were among 28 teams competing in the hackathon which was jointly organised by DBS, the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI) and the Singapore Judiciary.
Minister of State (MCI) Tan Kiat How declared: “I’m passionate about this issue of online harms” in a Facebook post on Thursday (Oct 28).
He referrred to a speech he had made in Parliament calling on  the community to partner with one another to take action and help everyone, especially the vulnerable, safely navigate the digital space “even as we ride the wave of digital revolution”.
Go Women proposed a feature to be created in Telegram, allowing women to watermark a recipient’s name on nude photos and to stop the nude and intimate images being mass forwarded, using anti-forwardingg technology to block it.
Team member Liew Qian Hui, 20, said, “Seeing Telegram groups abused in this way is a very clear indication that there are not enough safety measures to protect women who may be vulnerable online.”
“As young women, we can’t help but think, what if one day that happens to us or our friends?” said team member Celeste Ng, 20, in a Straits Times report.
The other members of Go Women are Exceline Darmawan, 20, and Lee Xin Yi, 21.
Go Women highlighted that artificial intelligence should be able to detect nudity and implement a blurring mechanism to protect the women’s facial features.
“Ultimately, we hope to deter people from leaking or spreading nude photos. If potential perpetrators feel that they may be caught or if the nude photos can be easily traced back to them, they may think twice about forwarding a woman’s nude photos,” said Ms Lee.
“The hackathon demonstrates how the Singapore Together Alliance for Action approach brings like-minded partners together to tackle urgent problems faced by our community. I am impressed by the thoughtful solutions proposed by the teams to make the online space safer and more responsible for all users, especially women and girls,” said Mr Tan.
Hackathon for a Better World adopted a unique ‘slow-burn format, wherein participants can solve problem statements through an iterative process compared to the few hours or days in other hackathon events.
A total of four winners were chosen for the most innovative, feasible, life-changing and human-centred ideas.
“The unconventional approach was designed to give participants the space to develop sharper, more meaningful responses to the complex challenges before them,” said MCI./TISG
Read related: Man threatened to circulate ex-girlfriend’s nude photos