Telegram is said to be a hotbed for disseminating intimate photos and videos of women; this is based on the results of an investigation by the BBC World Service's Dissimformation team.
Reported from BBC Indonesia, Friday (18/2/2022), a woman who became a victim, Sara (not her real name), admitted that she realized that her nude photos had been circulating on Telegram.
His Instagram, Facebook, and phone numbers are also included. He was contacted by an unknown man and asked for more photos.
"They made me feel like a prostitute because (they believed) I would share intimate photos of me. As if I was worthless as a woman," Sara said.
He admitted, sending the photo to one person who later turned out to be shared on a Telegram group with 18,000 followers. Many of the group's followers are from where he lives in Havana, Cuba.
After months of investigating Telegram, the BBC World Service's Dissimformation team discovered large groups and channels that shared thousands of images of women filmed, stolen, or leaked in at least 20 countries.
In addition, there is little evidence that Telegram is trying to solve this problem.
The BBC team has monitored 18 Telegram channels and 24 groups in countries ranging from Russia, Brazil, Kenya to Malaysia with nearly two million members.
"We have seen that group admins ask their members to post intimate images of ex-partners, colleagues, or fellow students to automated accounts so that the images can be published without revealing the identity of the sender," the BBC team said.
They tested how strictly Telegram enforced its users' privacy policies, then reported 100 pornographic images through the reporting feature available in the app.
One month later, the reported 96 images were still accessible, and no other four were found because they were in an inaccessible group.
Despite the soft moderation, Telegram does the crackdown on specific content.
After Apple removed Telegram from the App Store because of a pedophile video, Telegram has been more proactive about child abuse content.