Telegram: Social media app wia dem dey share women nudes witout dia consent

One BBC investigation don show say pipo dey share intimate pictures of women to harass, shame and blackmail dem on social media app Telegram.

Telegram don tok say dem get more dan half a billion active users worldwide - dis na more dan Twitter - as many dey attracted by dia emphasis on privacy.

Millions bin move to Telegram in January 2021 from WhatsApp, wey change dia privacy terms.

"According to Telegram and pesin wey get am, dem no want censor users," tech legal counsel at digital rights group Access Now, Natalia Krapiva, tok.

But our research don show say dis kind approach don make Telegram safe place where dem dey leak and share intimate images.

WARNING: DIS ARTICLE GET CONTENT WEY DEY SEXUAL IN NATURE

Within second Sara find out say her nude foto don dey leaked and shared on Telegram, her life change.

Dem add her Instagram and Facebook profiles, dem also add her phone number.

Suddenly unknown men bin dey contact her for more pictures.

"Dem make me feel like say I be prostitute sake of say [dem believe] I share my intimate pictures. E mean say I no get value as woman," she tok.

Sara, no be her real name, bin share di foto wit one pesin, but e don end up for one Telegram group wey get 18,000 followers.

Many of dem dey live for her neighbourhood for Havana, Cuba. She dey fear say strangers for street fit don see her nakedness.

"I bin no want go out, I bin no want get any contact wit my friends. Di truth be say I suffer well well."

She no dey alone. After BBC investigate Telegram for months, we find large groups and channels wey dey share thousand of filmed, stolen or leaked images of women for at least 20 kontris.

And little evidence dey say di platform dey tackle dis problem.

Thousands of miles from Cuba, Nigar dey try to adjust to a new life.

She come from Azerbaijan, but tok say she dey forced to leave her homeland.

In 2021, one video where she and her husband bin dey make love enta di hand of her family, and e also enta one Telegram group.

"My mum bin start to cry and tell me: 'One video dey, dem send am to me'," she tok.

"I bin dey devastated, absolutely devastated."

Dem share di video inside one group wey get 40,000 members.

For inside di video, di man wey now be Nigar ex-husband face dey blurred but di woman face dey show.

She believe say her ex secretly film am to blackmail her brother wey dey criticise Azerbaijan president well well.

She tok say dem tell her mother say dem go release di video on Telegram unless di brother stop to dey im activism.

"Dem look at you as if say you be disgrace. Who care if you bin dey married?" Nigar tok.

She tok say she confront her ex-husband about di video but di man tok say no be im film am.

BBC try to get comment from di an but im no reply.

Nigar still dey struggle to move on wit her life: "I no fit recover. I see therapists two times for a week," she tok.

"Dem say progress no dey so far. Dem ask if I fit forget am, I say no."

Nigar and Sara picture dey reported on Telegram, but di platform no respond. Dia experience no dey unique.

BBC bin dey monitor 18 Telegram channels and 24 groups in kontris wey include Russia, Brazil, Kenya and Malaysia. Di total number of subscribers na nearly two million.

Dem dey post personal details like home addresses and parents phone numbers wit di nude pictures.

We see group administrators wey dey ask members to send intimate images of ex-partners, colleagues or fellow students to one automated account.

Di request na so dem go fit dey published witout revealing di sender identity.

Telegram bin don dey popular with pro-democracy protesters for kontris wey get media censorship.

Users fit post witout sharing dia name or phone number, and create public or private groups wit up to 200,000 members.

Or users fit send give channels wey fit broadcast to unlimited number of pipo.

Despite Telegram reputation for privacy, na only di "secret chat" option provide end-to-end encryption, wey ensure say na only di two pipo wey dey tok fit see di message.

Na di default setting for secure chat apps like Signal and WhatsApp.

Di platform also dey attract users wey dey seek space wey no too dey regulated, including pipo wey dem don ban from oda platforms.

Telegram no get dedicated policy to tackle di non-consensual sharing of intimate images.

But dia terms of service make user agree say dem "no go post illegal pornographic content on channels wey dey public on di platform, bot, etc".

Dem also get in-app reporting feature across both public and private groups, and channels where users fit report pornography.

To test how Telegram dey enforce dia policies well, we find and report 100 images as pornography through di in-app reporting feature. One month later, 96 still dey accessible.

We no fit locate four odas, sake of say dem dey groups wey we no longer get access to.

Wen we dey investigate dis groups, one account from Russia bin try sell one folder wey contain child abuse videos for less dan di price of coffee.

We report am to Telegram and di Metropolitan Police, but two months later di post and di channel still dey there. Telegram only remove am afta we contact dia media team.

Despite dia moderation wey no dey strong, Telegram no dey take action against certain content.

After Apple bin remove Telegram from dia AppStore briefly sake of di videos like di one wey pesin wan sell for us, Telegram bin take more proactive stance on child abuse images.

Di platform also cooperate wit EU crime agency Europol in 2019 to eliminate huge amount of Islamic State content wey don dey too much on di platform.

"We know say Telegram fit remove and [don] dey remove content wey dey terrorist-related or some content wey dey very radical,"

Dr Aliaksandr Herasimenka, researcher at di Oxford Internet Institute, tok.

But e appear say dia priority no be to remove intimate images.

We bin speak to five Telegram content moderators on condition say dem no go mention dia names.

Dem tell us say dem dey receive reports from users through automated system, wey dem say dem sort into "spam" and "not spam".

Dem say dem no dey proactively search for intimate images and, and wetin dem know be say Telegram no dey use artificial intelligence to do dat sef.

Dis lack of action don lead some women to take steps diasef.

Joanna bin find a naked image of herself from wen she bin dey 13 years old for inside one notorious Malaysian Telegram group.

She create fake Telegram profile to join di group, where she kon anonymously search for nude pictures and report dem. She also share wetin she find wit her friends.

Sake of media pressure, dem close down di group. But during our investigation, we find at least two duplicate groups wey dey share di same kind of images.

"Sometimes you just feel so helpless, sake of say we try to do so much to remove dis groups. But dem still dey come up, so I no know if dis thing get end, honestly," Joana tok

Telegram bin refuse to do interview, but for one statement, dem tell us say dem no dey proactively monitor public spaces and process user reports about content wey violate dia terms of service.

To test how rigorously Telegram enforced its policies, we found and reported 100 images as pornography via the in-app reporting feature.

One month later, 96 still dey accessible. We no fit locate four odas, as dem bin dey in groups wey we fit no longer access.

Telegram no confam weda to dey post pipo intimate images dey allowed on di platform or weda dem dey remove am.

Di rollout of ads for inside some public channels on Telegram - along with investment - don show say founder Pavel Durov dey intend to monetise di platform.

Dis fit increase pressure on Telegram and dia founder to dey do wetin social media rivals like WhatsApp dey do.

WhatsApp don dey introduce policies against sharing intimate pictures.

We never know wen di company go resist greater moderation as dem dey move into new markets and start to dey generate revenue.

For di women wey dia reputation and lives don dey destroyed sake of say pipo share dia intimate images on Telegram, change no fit come soon enough.

Story by Lucy Swinnen, Jack Goodman, Hannah Gelbart, Maria Korenyuk and Juliana Gragnani.

Disinformation Editor: Rebecca Skippage