About this episode

The episode discusses technology designed to combat online harms related to the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, featuring an interview with Madelaine Thomas of Image Angel.

This week, we're exploring technology designed to respond to online harms. We spoke with Madelaine Thomas, founder of Image Angel, about forensic watermarking, how the technology works, and the challenges of building tools to respond to the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. We also discuss the opportunities, limitations, and alternative approaches to tackling this issue. The talk was hosted by Charlotte Maher on July 2nd 2026. Music featured is courtesy of Artlist. Recorded live in our Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/bellingcat TW: Discussion of sexual exploitation and image abuse Links: The company website: https://www.imageangel.co.uk/ And Image Angel's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imageangel_/ If you're interested in this talk you might find our previous talk with CNN interesting: (HUGE TW for sexual abuse) https://rss.com/podcasts/bellingcatstagetalk/2909687/ Revenge Porn Helpline: https://stopncii.org/ Bellingcat Open Source Toolkit: https://bellingcat.gitbook.io/toolkit Tool Development space in our Discord Server: https://discordapp.com/channels/709752884257882135/1485701772625314013 #NotYourPorn: https://notyourporn.com/

People in this episode

Host: Charlotte Maher

Guest: Madelaine Thomas

Topics covered

• online harms
• forensic watermarking
• non-consensual sharing
• intimate imagery
• technology
• image abuse
• digital safety

Keywords

• protective tech
• image sharing
• watermarking
• online safety
• sexual exploitation
• image abuse
• digital tools

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Image Angel, Bellingcat, CNN, Revenge Porn Helpline, Bellingcat Open Source Toolkit, Artlist

Places: Discord Server

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