Images circulating without consent

A nonprofit called AI Forensics says it found a market on Telegram where intimate images of women were being traded, sold, and organized across Spain and Italy, not as scattered posts but as a repeat system. Its researchers analyzed nearly 2.8 million messages across 16 groups and channels and identified 24,671 active users during a six-week window. (aiforensics.org) The files were not just being dumped into chats. AI Forensics says sellers were charging one-time fees of 20 to 50 euros for archive access, or monthly subscriptions starting at 5 euros, using payment tools including PayPal, cryptocurrency, and Bizum. (aiforensics.org) Some of those groups were huge. AI Forensics says single groups reached about 27,000 members in Italy and 25,000 in Spain, which turns a private image leak into something closer to a wholesale distribution network. (aiforensics.org) The report says Telegram worked as the hub, but the raw material often came from elsewhere. News reports on the study say many files were traced back to mainstream social platforms including TikTok and Instagram, where women had originally posted photos for ordinary social sharing, not for resale into abuse channels. (lateja.cr) That is what makes this story different from the old idea of a hacked folder or an ex posting revenge porn. AI Forensics describes a cross-platform system where public or semi-public images are copied, sorted into archives, and then repackaged inside Telegram channels built for search, payment, and repeat circulation. (aiforensics.org) The researchers also say the network was not confined by country. Seventy-two percent of Spanish content in their sample also appeared in Italian groups, and 8 percent of all media files were seen circulating in both national environments. (aiforensics.org) Telegram says it blocks tens of thousands of groups and channels daily and has used proactive moderation since 2015, with added artificial intelligence tools introduced in early 2024. On its moderation page, the company says users can report illegal content directly inside the app and through official reporting bots. (telegram.org) But AI Forensics argues that Telegram’s product design still makes this trade easier to run at scale. Its report points to tagged folders, automated bots, private channels, and premium features that let organizers package abusive material the way a normal business would package inventory. (aiforensics.org) The ugliest detail is that the archives did not stop at adult intimate photos. AI Forensics says some paid archives also contained child sexual abuse material and content depicting rape and incest, which means the same channels were mixing image-based sexual abuse with more serious criminal material. (aiforensics.org) Once a photo leaves the app where it was posted, the original audience stops mattering. A picture uploaded for friends on Instagram or a short video posted on TikTok can be copied into a Telegram archive, renamed, bundled with thousands of other files, and sold to strangers who were never meant to see it. (lateja.cr)