Intimate Photos of Women Shared Without Consent: The Disturbing Reality of Online Exploitation

“Does anyone have anything like this?” says one of the more than a thousand users who spread intimate photos and chats of women around them without their consent. This is a Telegram group, one of many, in which the members search for and publish images of girls, in this case from Córdoba, in erotic situations, in most cases.

The content runs daily, the users are anonymous and thousands of women are exposed with their faces and names. Even with their social media profiles.

They share accounts of girls who voluntarily offer their own photos in exchange for the “Cafecito” system or on OnlyFans, in addition to disseminating videos that they sell to their “clients.”

But they also publish private conversations with their partners or Instagram stories of their friends or acquaintances, without their knowledge.

This is just one channel of the many others that circulate in Córdoba and the country.

A few months ago, a young woman from Tucumán exposed a group on this same application that had shared naked photos of her, without her consent. They were images that she had taken for her partner and he captured them and shared them with a group of more than a thousand people.

This is how thousands of Cordobans share intimate photos of women without their consent.

How these groups work

Córdoba is not far behind. There are groups of this style that share photos of women only from the province; one of them is public and anyone can access it just by knowing the name.

Among them, there are two groups with 2,700 people, a figure comparable to the population of Villa Yacanto or other towns in the territory.

The content flows constantly and the members of the group operate freely, exposing with total impunity “their offer” which is, nothing more and nothing less, than a girl with a first and last name who has no knowledge that this is happening.

This underworld is not only a dissemination of content among the thousands of members of the group, but – in real life – these young women perceive the consequences: unknown men search for them on social networks and send them requests. Some of those women notice that something is happening; others don’t even imagine it.

A testimony

V. is a 21-year-old girl who suffered the dissemination of her image on one of these channels.

“I realized when I started receiving friend requests from men, in large numbers,” she says. His profile is kept private.

The young woman explains that she sent an intimate photo to F., a young man she was dating and with whom she trusted. Knowing the “tricks” that exist, she decided to send him a photo in instant mode.

Even so, the person who was his partner recorded the screen and broadcast his video, where V. came out without a shirt.

The young woman remembers that the situation upset her and that she had to modify her Instagram username so that the requests would stop.

What justice can do

Andrés Piazza, lawyer and director of the Institute for Digital Development of Latam and the Caribbean (IDD LAC), referred to this type of practices that extend to WhatsApp and other platforms.

“This situation could be framed in the dissemination of non-consensual image and violation of privacy,” said the professional, although he also mentioned that it is “difficult to define in a messaging group.”

Although he noted that victims can face a civil lawsuit against whoever exposed their image without permission, he pointed out that preventing this practice is almost impossible.

“It is one thing to have judicial consent that guarantees the opening of that content, in which there must be a specific order, and another is ‘cyber patrolling’, which is highly questioned.”

Messaging applications generally have end-to-end encryption, as is the case with WhatsApp and Signal; Telegram, meanwhile, does not have this.

However, Justice cannot access the content that is disseminated on these platforms without an order determined by some judicial process.

Therefore, the practice of preventing these groups from continuing to create and disseminate images of women without consent is currently impossible.

“The pursuit of cybercriminals breaks encryption. Justice, in any of its security tools, cannot request a backdoor so that everything encrypted is revealed because private communication is a human right,” Piazza said.

Even so, he acknowledged that these practices “are a big problem” and that the anonymity of the person carrying out this dissemination often complicates researchers.

Although he reinforced: “Invasion of privacy is a crime. This can have an economic consequence through a civil lawsuit for damages against the group’s administrators.”

The Olympia Law

In July, the Chamber of Deputies approved and sent to the Senate a project to modify law 26,485 on Comprehensive Protection of Women, to incorporate the figure of “digital violence”, known as “Olimpia law”.

Among other points, it understands that violence against women can occur “both in the public and private spheres, on the analog or virtual level.” And promotes good digital practice programs.

The Olympia Law received half a sanction. Photo: Twitter / @OlimpiaCMujer

What to do when faced with revenge porn

80% of the material shared in this Telegram group created by Cordobans is from women who have accounts on platforms such as OnlyFans, Cafecito and Tecito, among others.

These applications allow the user to upload content and charge those who want to access it.

Are they legal? Yes. There is no legislation that prevents this sale of photos and videos. Although access is to those who pay subscriptions, the material is usually saved and then disseminated on other platforms. For example, in these Telegram groups.

In this regard, Piazza clarifies: “OnlyFans has a mechanism that democratizes what previously needed an intermediary. Usually we talk about freedom. “It is a business model where a person shares a consented image to a certain group.”

However, it points out that this sale must respond to the legal principles of “discernment, intention and consent.”

If not, there are vices that can be punished, so young women who have OnlyFans and consider that their privacy has been violated can also file a civil lawsuit.

To avoid identification

Although the dissemination of intimate photos should not be practiced without the consent of the protagonists, the modality exists.

Therefore, it is important to take into account some points to prevent the person being photographed from being identified:

-Keep in mind that, when images go viral on the Internet, even if the sites remove the offensive publications, it is impossible to delete them from the entire network.

-Stories uploaded to Instagram may be captured and shared without your consent.

-The images sent by applications such as Snapchat notify when someone takes a capture.

-Images from social networks or instant messaging services can be captured with another cell phone or through screen recording.

-Talk to your partner about taking -or not- private images. Consent is key for both parties.

-If you are going to film yourself or take a photo, avoid showing your face or any other feature that allows you to be identified in the images or videos. The spread of intimate photos without consent is so common that some women edit the image and add the name of the recipient in case they spread it.

The Nation has a portal that assists victims of cybercrimes, so that they can make complaints easily. Other alternatives are to go to the prosecutor’s office closest to your home or file a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

What to do if you are a victim

Additionally, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights recommends that, if you are a victim of “revenge porn,” you take the following into account:

-Save all the evidence you have: chats, emails, screenshots and any type of content that provides information to computer experts to present in a prosecutor’s office. Many times, “revenge porn” cases can end in “sextortion.”

-Ask them to download the videos or photos from each of the sites where they were published. Article 16 of Law 25,326 on the Protection of Personal Data establishes that they must be deleted within five business days from your complaint.

-Seek legal advice.

Cybersecurity Glossary

Sexting: exchange of one’s own sexual content, whether photos or videos, through digital platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, email or other applications. The name comes from sex (sex in English) and texting (sending messages via cell phone). Sexting is illegal when it involves minors (child pornography), or between adults without consent.

Sextortion: a form of blackmail in which one person threatens another person with sharing intimate photos or videos of sexual content.

Revenge porn: non-consensual dissemination of intimate images or videos on social networks, instant messaging services or any type of social media where information is shared. It is done by couples, ex-partners or people seeking revenge after a breakup or fight. It is typified by the Penal Code.

OnlyFans: content subscription service where creators can earn income from users subscribed to their profile. The platform is usually used to sell sexual or erotic content, without intermediaries.

* This note was originally published in Vía País

2023-09-09 04:23:52
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