A BBC investigation has found that women's intimate pictures are being shared to harass, shame and blackmail them on a massive scale, on the social media app Telegram.
WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS CONTENT OF A SEXUAL NATURE
In the split second Sara found out a nude photo of her had been leaked and shared on Telegram, her life changed. Her Instagram and Facebook profiles had been added, and her phone number included. Suddenly she was being contacted by unknown men asking for more pictures.
"They made me feel like I was a prostitute because [they believed] I'd shared intimate pictures of myself. It meant I had no value as a woman," she says.
Sara, not her real name, had shared the photo with one person, but it had ended up in a Telegram group with 18,000 followers, many from her neighbourhood in Havana, Cuba. She now fears strangers in the street may have seen her naked. "I didn't want to go out, I didn't want to have any contact with my friends. The truth is that I suffered a lot."
She's not alone. After months of investigating Telegram, we found large groups and channels sharing thousands of secretly filmed, stolen or leaked images of women in at least 20 countries. And there's little evidence the platform is tackling this problem.
Read more : www.bbc.com/news/world-60303769
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