For Malaysian survivors of Telegram porn scandal, abuse and exploitation lead to calls for change
- Women victims of abuse who infiltrated chat groups share stories of inner workings of Telegram groups
- The exposure of the groups has seen renewed calls for more stringent laws against sexual harassment, cyberbullying and online violence against women
“There was so much child porn being traded openly. There was a father who secretly filmed his own daughter and sent it to the group,” said Shalini, 23, who was part of a community-driven sting operation to collect information and share it with the police.
“In the group men were sending revenge porn – sometimes just ‘sexy’ selfies from Instagram – just because a girl didn’t respond to their messages,” she said. “I’ve seen boyfriends participating in a competition by sending their own significant other’s photos to the group. I’ve seen Photoshopped photos of women made to look naked or contact information shared with men claiming they are sex workers.
“In these cases, they were just women who had broken up with these men or not entertained their romantic advances,” said Shalini, who only wanted to be identified by her first name.
The Malaysian police said they would get in touch with Interpol to crack down on the swapping of child pornography, while the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission contacted Telegram itself to investigate the matter.