WATCH: A young Richmond woman is fighting back after a fake nude photo of her was posted online
VANCOUVER – Tired of seeing a fake nude of herself being shared and posted online, one Richmond B.C. woman decided to take matters into her own hands.
Twenty-one-year-old Andrea Ng was only 16 when she uploaded a photo of herself getting ready for a school dance. She put it on her Facebook page and thought nothing more about it. In 2010, someone then took that photo and Photoshopped breasts on her, making it seem like she was taking a topless selfie.
That person then created a Facebook account under Ng’s name and added her friends and family. Ng reported them to Facebook over and over and called the Richmond RCMP to report it.
I had high hopes that my local police department would take my case seriously and help me stop whoever it is that is trying to sabotage me. However, it was much to my dismay that the police didn’t even attempt to look for the person behind these pictures; the police had arrived at my house, asked what had happened, and that was it. No action was taken, “nothing could be done” they had said, over and over again.
About a week later, the Facebook page was taken down.
“For someone to do something so personal, I don’t think it was any random person,” said Ng.
She thought that was it and the matter was closed.
However, on Feb. 1, 2015, Ng received a message from a friend saying they had seen the fake nude being shared on Tumblr. It has been reblogged more than 1,000 times.
She reported it to Tumblr and it was taken down, however Ng did not contact the police this time. By this time she was looking for internships and was studying public relations at Kwantlen Polytechnic University — she just didn’t want anything like this to interfere with her chances of getting a placement or a job in the future.
But this was not the last time she would be haunted by this photo.
On April 19, 2015, Ng got a call from her boyfriend saying someone had created a Twitter account and tweeted out the fake nude.
On her blog Ng writes:
I looked into this person’s Twitter page that was under the name, “@Jasonchan911” and profile name “Jacob Black”. This Jacob Black posted two tweets with the naked photo attached and also tagged me in the two posts. Not only that they followed my friends, classmates, and companies I had sent internship applications to for the summer.
On April 22 she contacted police and while an officer came to her home, Ng was told there is nothing the officer can do or will do.
I then asked her… “What about Amanda Todd, the police were able to track her harasser all the way to Europe.”
The police officer said, “Well, I have confidence that you would not harm yourself because of this situation, and unless this situation becomes more serious I will then put more resources towards this case.”
“You can’t sit there and tell me you don’t have the resources,” Ng told Global News. “The police aren’t taking this as serious as they should.”
Cpl. Dennis Hwang, with Richmond RCMP, said due to privacy concerns, he is unable to divulge any information with respect to individual cases or persons.
“The RCMP treats all cases of bullying very seriously. It is a national concern. Each case is unique and will be examined as such by the investigator,” Hwang said in an email statement.
On April 23 the Twitter account was suspended and Ng decided to write about what happened in a blog post.
“I don’t want my future employer… googling my name and looking at this photo,” said Ng. “And I also don’t want the impression that I would do something like this.”
She said reaction to her blog post has been very positive and she has received messages from people saying this has also happened to them. Despite being angry at the police response to her case, Ng said it is still important to tell the police about cyberbullying.
“Putting this photo online of myself, half-naked, that wasn’t easy,” she said. “But I had to remind myself that this photo is fake.”
Since writing about her experience in her blog, Ng has not had any further incidents occur online.
Ng also wants her story to serve as a warning for those using social media. “Just make sure you know who can see your material online,” she said. “When I was 16 I didn’t know any better.”
Richmond RCMP has information on their website about bullying and cyberbullying.
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