Outrage in China after reports of exploitative images of Chinese women shared in Telegram groups

New Straits Times

6 days ago

BEIJING: Sexually exploitative images of Chinese women have been shared in encrypted Telegram chat groups with hundreds of thousands of users, according to Chinese media, triggering widespread outrage online.
A Chinese-language Telegram chat group named "MaskPark tree hole forum" reportedly shared images of women secretly taken or filmed in locations including public toilets, with more than 100,000 anonymous users in China and abroad, said the state-run newspaper Southern Daily, which first reported the groups' existence last week.
Some users posted private images of their current or ex-girlfriends and female family members, the report said, adding that some footage of women secretly filmed using pinhole cameras in public spaces was being sold in the chat groups.
Hashtags related to the issue on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo gained more than 270 million views on Tuesday.
"It's truly frightening how secret filming has infiltrated everyday life," read one comment.
China has strict obscenity laws and routinely removes content deemed pornographic from its tightly controlled domestic internet, so the scale of this image sharing has shocked many in the country. People must use VPN software to access Telegram, which is blocked in China.
Other Telegram sub-forums targeting Chinese-speaking users with pornographic content reportedly had as many as 900,000 members, Southern Daily said.
"My ex-boyfriend secretly took photos of me during sex, posted my private photos to the group without my permission, and publicised my social media accounts," a female victim who remained anonymous told the newspaper.
She said she was alerted to the forum in May through an anonymous tip-off, and added that many of the chat group messages auto-deleted, while the images could not be saved or screenshotted due to Telegram's settings.
Chatroom users also sold everyday items, such as incense holders, fitted with pinhole cameras used to secretly film women, according to chat logs published in the report.
"This has heightened the concerns of many women, as voyeuristic incidents seem to be everywhere," said Huang Simin, a Chinese lawyer who specialises in sexual violence cases.
"I've noticed a general sense of powerlessness among women regarding legal protections – a feeling that there's no effective way to address such incidents."
The main MaskPark forum has been taken down, but some smaller sub-forums remain active on Telegram, Southern Daily reported.
"The sharing of non-consensual pornography is explicitly forbidden by Telegram's terms of service and is removed whenever discovered," a Telegram spokesperson told Reuters.
"Moderators proactively monitor public areas of the platform and accept reports in order to remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day, including non-consensual pornography."
South Korea scandal
Chinese social media users compared the incident to South Korea's "Nth room" scandal, where operators of pay-to-view Telegram chatrooms blackmailed at least 74 women – including underage girls – into sharing sexually explicit images with tens of thousands of users.
That case sparked national outrage in South Korea, and the main ringleader was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2020.
"Compared to the 'Nth room' incident, the evil of MaskPark is even more normalised and diffuse. There is no single principal offender and users share images for 'pleasure', not profit," read one Weibo post with more than 14,000 likes.
Users who posted images in the chatrooms can be investigated under Chinese law for "producing, selling and disseminating obscene materials for profit" and "illegally using special equipment for eavesdropping and taking non-consensual photos", said Huang.
However, the offences of secret filming and photography carry relatively light penalties if the content is not deemed obscene—typically a fine of up to 500 yuan (US$69.68) and up to 10 days' administrative detention in serious cases.
It is also difficult for Chinese police to pursue offenders involved with MaskPark, as Telegram is encrypted and hosted overseas, according to a Chinese legal researcher who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
"Criminal cases require a high evidence threshold, so disseminating intimate images often remains difficult to prosecute due to insufficient evidence," they said.
"There are no specific regulations regarding the dissemination of intimate images of adult women."
Both lawyers called for stronger government oversight of gender-based abuse on online platforms.