Nov 1 2020, 09:55 PM, updated 6y ago
Child pornography, revenge nudes and upskirt images – these are just some of the things Shalini saw when she infiltrated one of the Malaysian Telegram groups created to share and trade illegal pornographic content on the instant-messaging service.
“There was so much child porn being traded openly. There was a father who secretly filmed his own daughter and sent it to the group,” said Shalini, 23, who was part of a community-driven sting operation to collect information and share it with the police.
“In the group men were sending revenge porn – sometimes just ‘sexy’ selfies from Instagram – just because a girl didn’t respond to their messages,” she said. “I’ve seen boyfriends participating in a competition by sending their own significant other’s photos to the group. I’ve seen Photoshopped photos of women made to look naked or contact information shared with men claiming they are sex workers.
“In these cases, they were just women who had broken up with these men or not entertained their romantic advances,” said Shalini, who only wanted to be identified by her first name.
The existence of these Telegram groups – some of which have been operating for years – made national headlines earlier this month after a group of women publicised the matter on social media and made police reports, causing the local authorities to promise to take action.
The Malaysian police said they would get in touch with Interpol to crack down on the swapping of child pornography, while the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission contacted Telegram itself to investigate the matter.
The Telegram groups, with thousands of members, do not only serve as spaces to share photos of women without consent but are also transaction hubs for stolen nudes, child pornography, and hidden camera footage, a women’s rights group said.
“Personal information shared without consent includes details such as phone numbers, social media handles, and even home addresses,” the All Women’s Action Society (Awam) said in a statement.
“In some instances, these girls’ personal information is used as a commodity to barter for other girls’ personal information. The men then use this information to send lewd messages to the women,” it said, adding that one of the groups, called “V2K” has over 40,000 members, including university students and businessmen.
For the women like Shalini who infiltrated the group as part of the community sting operation, the experience took a psychological toll, not just due to to the explicit images and misogynistic messages they saw but also because of their fear of being discovered and doxxed – having their identities and private information exposed online.
“All of this took a toll on our mental health, sometimes we had to just take a break for days before checking on these groups again,” Shalini said. “But now we have handed over all the information to the police, that‘s the best way we can help with the investigation.”
The exposure of the Telegram groups – with names such as “Virgin Boys” and “Vitamin for Testicles” – has seen renewed calls for more stringent laws against sexual harassment, cyberbullying and online violence against women, with women’s groups stepping up their call for Malaysia’s parliament to pass a long-delayed anti-sexual-harassment bill.
According to Awam, the Malaysian police are still carrying out investigations and taking statements from survivors.
“We are receiving more and more cases of online sexual harassment involving blackmailing, where ex-boyfriends threaten to leak pictures of their former partner in order for the girls to remain in a relationship with them,” said Awam staff member Mayna Patel.
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/artic...nd-exploitation
Malaysian porn Telegram groups in focus
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