Amber Heard opens up about her push for the SHIELD Act and the problem with the phrase ‘revenge porn’

Amber Heard is working with members of Congress to make it a federal crime to publicly share explicit images of people without their consent. The actress, who was among a slew of stars who had nude photos hacked from their iCloud accounts and leaked online in 2014, opened up about so-called “revenge porn” on the latest edition of “The Conversation with Amanda de Cadenet,” reminding listeners that the hackers pleaded guilty to stealing the photos, but no one was ever charged for posting them online, according to the Daily Mail. She also pointed out that the “revenge porn” term itself is problematic. “[The term] implies that there was an action, for which the victim was responsible. For you to seek revenge, it implies that somebody did something wrong,” she said. Amber also reiterated some of the points she made during a press conference on Capitol Hill in May, where she said graphic, private images of her remain on the internet, but they’ve since been “manipulated” and often surface alongside what she described as “sexually explicit and humiliating and degrading headlines.” She said she’s still “harassed, stalked and humiliated by the theft of those images.” Amber’s now working with Sen. Kamala Harris and representatives Jackie Speier and John Katko to get support for the SHIELD Act, which would make the distribution — not just the theft — of non-consensual, explicit images a federal crime. “That’s the beautiful thing about legislation,” Amber said on Amanda’s podcast. “It is one thing to change attitudes, and when we talk about changing cultural attitudes, we talk about imparting change, we have to appreciate how much of that is informed by legislation which codifies it.”