Thousands of men are members of Telegram groups and channels that advertise and sell hacking and surveillance services that can be used to harass friends, spouses and ex-partners, new research has revealed. The findings, from a European non-profit group, also say that the communities are involved in the big business, marketing and advertising of various types of offensive content, including private images of women who are not satisfied, so-called. nudity servicesas well as folders of images that the sellers claim include child sexual abuse material and depictions of sexuality and rape.
Over six weeks earlier this year, researchers in the AI Forensics algorithmic review group analyzed nearly 2.8 million messages sent to 16 Italian and Spanish Telegram communities that regularly publish abusive content targeting women and girls. More than 24,000 members of Telegram groups and channels participated in posting 82,723 photos, videos, and audio files during the study, the analysis says. Most posts target celebrities and influencers, but men in groups also frequently bully women they know.
“We tend to forget that most of the victims are ordinary women who sometimes don’t even know that their photos are being shared or changed in these types of channels,” says Silvia Semenzin, an AI Forensics researcher who previously exposed Italian Telegram channels engaging in such behavior. until 2019. “Most of this violence is directed at people the perpetrators know,” he says, suggesting that Telegram, which has more than 1 billion monthly users, according to for the company’s founder Pavel Durov, it should be under strict control and positioned as a “very large online platform” under European cyber security laws.
The result comes as Durov to fight behind against Russia’s efforts to block the country’s messaging app, which has long positioned itself as a messaging app that allows for freedom of expression but has been at the same time. used and some to share terrorist, sexual harassmentand Internet crime material. Durov is under criminal investigation in France in relation to allegations of crimes taking place on Telegram, although he has repeatedly denied the allegations.
A Telegram spokesperson tells WIRED that the company removes “millions” of pieces of content per day using “specialized AI tools” and has European policies which does not allow the promotion of violence, illegal sexual content including non-consensual images and other content such as spoofing and selling illegal goods and services.
Among the many types of abusive content and services observed by the AI Forensics researchers were frequent references to access, publication, and abuse of women’s personal information, sharing content on Instagram or TikTok, as well as references to espionage or hacking. “Victims are often named, identified, and found through shared profile links,” the group’s report says.
One translated post on Telegram titled “Professional Hacking on commission” claimed to be able to provide customers with “phone gallery access and photo and video mining,” as well as “anonymous social media hacking.” Another message reads: “I hack and restore any kind of social media service. I can spy on your partner’s account. Send me a private message.”
Across the database there were more than 18,000 references to spy or intelligence content. One post read: “Hi, interested in spying on a girl’s gallery? We’re selling a bot that does just that for news DMs.” Meanwhile, users were seen asking if people can find phone numbers linked to Instagram accounts and other applications, “who exchanges spy photos and videos?”
