Indianapolis News and HeadlinesState News

Actions

Indiana's high court upholds state's 'revenge porn' law

Gavel generic
Posted at 9:23 AM, Jan 23, 2022
and last updated 2022-01-24 06:36:51-05

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Supreme Court has upheld the state’s so-called “revenge porn” law that makes it a criminal act to distribute intimate images without consent.

In a 5-0 ruling issued Tuesday, the court found that the General Assembly did not run afoul of the free speech guarantees of either the Indiana Constitution or the U.S. Constitution when it enacted the law in 2019.

The law criminalized the nonconsensual distribution of intimate images, online or in-person, making doing so a class A misdemeanor punishable by a $5,000 fine and/or a year in jail.

The ruling involved a case where a Trine University student allegedly sent an explicit video to his ex-girlfriend through Snapchat.