Massive Telegram leak of private photos by thousands of men shocks China

Pornography in China is illegal, and conservative social attitudes towards women remain the norm, often reinforced by state media and popular culture.

It comes after a Chinese university expelled a woman this month for "damaging national dignity" over videos posted by a Ukrainian esports player on Telegram suggesting they had been intimate.

The Chinese state-owned Southern Daily reported this week that a woman discovered photos of her taken unknowingly had been shared in a Telegram forum with over 100,000 users, mostly Chinese men.

Members of the forum also shared photos of their girlfriends, ex-girlfriends and wives, according to a commentary in the Guangming Daily, an outlet backed by China's ruling communist party.

Revelations of the group have sparked widespread outcry online.

"We are not... 'content' that can be randomly uploaded, viewed and fantasised about," read one comment on Instagram-like Red Note.

"We can no longer remain silent. Because next could be me, or it could be you."

A related hashtag has been viewed more than 230 million times on social media platform Weibo since Thursday.

The largest group, called "Mask Park", has since been taken down, but smaller spinoffs remain active, according to women contacted by Southern Daily.

Telegram encrypts its users' messages and is banned in China, but it is accessible using a virtual private network.

"The sharing of nonconsensual pornography is explicitly forbidden by Telegram's terms of service and is removed whenever discovered," Telegram said in a statement sent to AFP.

"Moderators proactively monitor public parts of the platform and accept reports in order to remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day, including nonconsensual pornography."

'Nightmares for life'

The incident has drawn comparisons to a case in South Korea dubbed "Nth Room", in which a man blackmailed dozens of women into taking sexually explicit videos and sold them on Telegram.

Online, Chinese women have detailed their own experiences of being filmed and photographed by men in public.

"What criminals consider 'regular' for them may be nightmares that countless women can't escape for the rest of their lives," one woman said, sharing an encounter on Douyin.

Chinese police have cracked down on illegal filming, arresting hundreds of people in 2022 over clandestine surveillance.

Chinese authorities have yet to publicly announce any action against the Telegram group.

But the Guangming Daily commentary urged "accountability" for the organizers of the Telegram group, and empathy for the people filmed.

Improving law enforcement would "enhance the overall sense of security, free women from the fear of being spied on and make privacy boundaries a truly untouchable red line", it said.