Telegram teams identified for sharing illicit sexual content material had set their sights on Serbian rights group activist Stasa Ivkovic. In 2021, Ivkovic obtained nameless recommendation that these teams had been searching for intimate photographs of her and making an attempt to acquire her private particulars.
Her social media accounts had been flooded with vulgar and insulting messages. This prompted Ivkovic to look into social media discussion groups in Serbia, the place revenge porn, baby pornography, and different unlawful content material are usually exchanged.
“They came upon every part — my deal with, who my dad and mom are, and all my different private data,” Ivkovic, founding father of the Belgrade-based rights group Osnazene (or “Empowered Girls”), advised AFP.
Ivkovic, alongside two colleagues from Osnazene, infiltrated quite a few such Telegram teams.
In a report printed in June, Osnazene revealed that roughly 10,000 messages are despatched every day inside the teams they monitored in Serbia. One of many largest teams consists of as much as 70,000 members. Ivkovic famous that members typically use codes like “teen commerce” or “-18” to seek for baby pornography.
“Male members of the family, largely sons, take photos of their moms and sisters after which ship them to those teams for score, sharing, and varied different functions,” she stated. Upskirting photos and different intrusive photographs are additionally prevalent. “Girls are actually not secure wherever,” Ivkovic stated.
In the same case, a video of rape was shared in a single group, with the sufferer discovering its circulation solely after it had unfold throughout a number of chats. The video was later faraway from a pornographic web site.
These revelations come up following the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France final month. Durov faces prices for failing to deal with extremist and unlawful content material on the platform.
Serbia’s Commissioner for Safety of Equality has linked the rise of such teams to “deep-rooted, conventional, patriarchal stereotypes about gender roles in households and communities, the place ladies are seen because the property of males.”
Regardless of the expansion of illicit teams, Serbian authorities have solely managed to close down 13 such teams, in response to native experiences.
Activists like Ivkovic argue that authorities inaction solely worsens the issue. Serbia lacks particular legal guidelines addressing the sharing of unauthorised recordings and pornographic content material, together with revenge porn.
Belgrade‘s Autonomous Girls’s Centre (AZC) has known as for harder legal guidelines and has gathered tens of hundreds of signatures for a petition. AZC’s Vanja Macanovic warns that the influence on victims may be traumatising. “These movies and photographs stay on-line without end, and the victims dwell in concern that somebody will see them once more, probably restarting the cycle of violence,” Macanovic stated.
Her social media accounts had been flooded with vulgar and insulting messages. This prompted Ivkovic to look into social media discussion groups in Serbia, the place revenge porn, baby pornography, and different unlawful content material are usually exchanged.
“They came upon every part — my deal with, who my dad and mom are, and all my different private data,” Ivkovic, founding father of the Belgrade-based rights group Osnazene (or “Empowered Girls”), advised AFP.
Ivkovic, alongside two colleagues from Osnazene, infiltrated quite a few such Telegram teams.
In a report printed in June, Osnazene revealed that roughly 10,000 messages are despatched every day inside the teams they monitored in Serbia. One of many largest teams consists of as much as 70,000 members. Ivkovic famous that members typically use codes like “teen commerce” or “-18” to seek for baby pornography.
“Male members of the family, largely sons, take photos of their moms and sisters after which ship them to those teams for score, sharing, and varied different functions,” she stated. Upskirting photos and different intrusive photographs are additionally prevalent. “Girls are actually not secure wherever,” Ivkovic stated.
In the same case, a video of rape was shared in a single group, with the sufferer discovering its circulation solely after it had unfold throughout a number of chats. The video was later faraway from a pornographic web site.
These revelations come up following the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France final month. Durov faces prices for failing to deal with extremist and unlawful content material on the platform.
Serbia’s Commissioner for Safety of Equality has linked the rise of such teams to “deep-rooted, conventional, patriarchal stereotypes about gender roles in households and communities, the place ladies are seen because the property of males.”
Regardless of the expansion of illicit teams, Serbian authorities have solely managed to close down 13 such teams, in response to native experiences.
Activists like Ivkovic argue that authorities inaction solely worsens the issue. Serbia lacks particular legal guidelines addressing the sharing of unauthorised recordings and pornographic content material, together with revenge porn.
Belgrade‘s Autonomous Girls’s Centre (AZC) has known as for harder legal guidelines and has gathered tens of hundreds of signatures for a petition. AZC’s Vanja Macanovic warns that the influence on victims may be traumatising. “These movies and photographs stay on-line without end, and the victims dwell in concern that somebody will see them once more, probably restarting the cycle of violence,” Macanovic stated.