Network of rapists on Telegram. Shocking investigation reveals the dark side of the internet
Over the last months, the world has been closely watching the infamous Dominique Pelicot case. Recently sentenced to 20 years in prison, Frenchman was repeatedly drugging and raping his wife, Gisele Pelicot, "inviting" to this brutal act more than 50 other men met on the internet. Now, the new German investigation sheds light on the broader problem of online rape groups.
The Dominique Pelicot case revealed that a man used online messengers to invite strange men to his home so they could gang-rape his drugged wife. In addition, a court in Avignon, France, found 47 men guilty of rape, two of attempted rape and two of sexual assault. As it turns out, this case is potentially a drop in the ocean of such crimes that indirectly enable communication apps.
Recently, a German investigation group called STRG_F published a 41-minute video on its YouTube channel, revealing the existence of numerous Telegram "rape chats." As the investigators disclose, after a year of observing numerous such groups, which include even up to 70,000 members from different countries, who were, for instance, sharing their experiences with raping and inviting other people to such acts, exactly like in Pelicot's case.
Das Vergewaltiger-Netzwerk auf Telegram | STRG_F
Moreover, the members of such chats were exchanging tips on how and with what drug their victims. One of the examples given by the investigation's authors is online shops, on which the members of such chats were able to purchase strong sedatives under the guise of hair products. Besides that, Users were encouraging each other to rape, inviting each other to rape, and sharing nude photos of women. Often, the victims were the women of their vicinity, such as wives, partners, sisters, or mothers.
I fantisize about drugging her and bringing men home to use her regularly. I'm sure when we don't have roommates I'll actually make it happen - stated one chat member in conversation with another, talking about his girlfriend, right after posting her nude photos on Telegram.
After the publication of this investigation, some of the groups were shut down, and the accounts of the users went inactive. However, new invitation links were also appearing, which shows how big and branched this network is.
This case raises the issue of Telegram's policy, which has repeatedly faced accusations in the past of failing to moderate chats that were used for things like drug trafficking and terrorist activities (Pavel Durov, the founder of the app, was detained by the French police for this in August). The app, in the statement quoted by Daily Mail, explained that it doesn't tolerate such activities on its channels.
Content that encourages sexual violence is explicitly forbidden by Telegram's terms of service. Telegram has a zero-tolerance policy towards misuse of its platform and any groups, channels or users caught participating are immediately removed from the platform, it stated.
Telegram added that using AI and machine learning tools, moderators actively oversee public areas of the platform while also processing reports from users and organizations to eliminate millions of harmful content items daily.
Tagesschau quotes German The Federal Criminal Police Office, which underlines that "if criminal acts are involved, it is possible, for example, to report the relevant groups to the service provider/messenger service and request that they be deleted." Also, the local Federal Ministry of the Interior states that law enforcement agencies actively investigate the details when they receive information about potential criminal groups. Crimes committed online are pursued with the same level of enforcement as those in the physical world.
Sources: The Telegraph, Daily Mail, STRG_F, Tagesschau.de
