The next speakers in this session at the 2019 AoIR Flashpoint Symposium are Silvia Semenzin and Lucia Bainotti, whose focus is on the use of the Telegram platform for the distribution of nonconsensual sexual imagery (including but not limited to revenge porn). The term they use to describe this is image-based sexual abuse, and it arises to some extent from sexting as a new digital practice.
Victims of such image distribution tend to be 90% female, and more than half of the victims have thought of suicide as a result. More generally, for context, in Italy some 20% of all women have experienced online harassment. Some of these practices are also enabled by male homosociality, constructions of masculinity through girl-watching practices, and broader gendered affordances on social media platforms.
Telegram is one platform being used for such practices; it is a hybrid between a messaging app and a community forum. It is seen as more secure than WhatsApp (for instance allowing secret chats, and using end-to-end encryption); it allows the creation of very large chat groups; and it allows for the use of bots.
The project studied some 50 private channels discovered through snowballing processes starting from relevant keywords, and categorised the channels and discourses encountered. These included general porn channels exchanging mainstream porn images as well as nonconsensual images; spy channels sharing content from hidden cameras; explicit image-based sexual abuse channels that included large misogynist channels as well as small channels targetting specific women; and linking channels that shared images drawn from other social networks.
The discourses on such channels also showed a particular performance of masculinity through male homosocial activity; nonconsensual content was collected and shared in part in order to become part of the group. There is significant misogynist language, and there were also some instances of doxxing by sharing personal contact details for some of the women. Women are also categorised by shape, age, city, or country of origin, and sorted into a system of folders named La Bibbia (The Bible).
Some of the discourse also addresses questions of consent, but largely deflects such concerns by victim-blaming. Only the (fairly loose) Telegram terms of service are considered when discussing the legitimacy of sharing such images, and alternative platforms are criticised for their curtailment of ‘male instincts’.
