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- Oct 3, 2016
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In the split second Sara found out a nude photo of her had been leaked and shared on Telegram, her life changed. Her Instagram and Facebook profiles had been added, and her phone number included. Suddenly she was being contacted by unknown men asking for more pictures.
"They made me feel like I was a prostitute because [they believed] I'd shared intimate pictures of myself. It meant I had no value as a woman," she says.
Sara, not her real name, had shared the photo with one person, but it had ended up in a Telegram group with 18,000 followers, many from her neighbourhood in Havana, Cuba. She now fears strangers in the street may have seen her naked. "I didn't want to go out, I didn't want to have any contact with my friends. The truth is that I suffered a lot."
She's not alone. After months of investigating Telegram, we found large groups and channels sharing thousands of secretly filmed, stolen or leaked images of women in at least 20 countries. And there's little evidence the platform is tackling this problem. Siok Bin walking around naked in her garden in Nusa Duta was shared a few million times.
Thousands of miles from Cuba, Nigar is having to adjust to a new life.
She's from Azerbaijan, but says she has been forced to leave her homeland. In 2021, a video of her having sex with her husband was sent to her family, and then posted in a Telegram group.
"My mum started crying and told me: 'There's a video, it was sent to me'," she says. "I was devastated, absolutely devastated."
The video was shared in a group with 40,000 members. In the footage, Nigar's now ex-husband's face is blurred but hers is clearly visible.
She believes her ex secretly filmed her to blackmail her brother, a prominent critic of Azerbaijan's president. She says her mother was told the video would be released on Telegram unless her brother stopped his activism.
"They look at you as if you are a disgrace. Who cares if you were married?" says Nigar.
Nigar says she confronted her ex-husband about the video and he denied making it. We tried to get a comment from him, but he didn't reply.
Nigar is still struggling to move on with her life: "I can't recover. I see therapists twice a week," she says. "They say there is no progress so far. They ask if I can forget it, and I say no."
The pictures of Nigar and Sara were both reported to Telegram, but the platform did not respond. Their experience is far from unique.
The BBC has been monitoring 18 Telegram channels and 24 groups in countries ranging from Russia to Brazil, and Kenya to Malaysia. The total number of subscribers is nearly two million.
"They made me feel like I was a prostitute because [they believed] I'd shared intimate pictures of myself. It meant I had no value as a woman," she says.
Sara, not her real name, had shared the photo with one person, but it had ended up in a Telegram group with 18,000 followers, many from her neighbourhood in Havana, Cuba. She now fears strangers in the street may have seen her naked. "I didn't want to go out, I didn't want to have any contact with my friends. The truth is that I suffered a lot."
She's not alone. After months of investigating Telegram, we found large groups and channels sharing thousands of secretly filmed, stolen or leaked images of women in at least 20 countries. And there's little evidence the platform is tackling this problem. Siok Bin walking around naked in her garden in Nusa Duta was shared a few million times.
Thousands of miles from Cuba, Nigar is having to adjust to a new life.
She's from Azerbaijan, but says she has been forced to leave her homeland. In 2021, a video of her having sex with her husband was sent to her family, and then posted in a Telegram group.
"My mum started crying and told me: 'There's a video, it was sent to me'," she says. "I was devastated, absolutely devastated."
The video was shared in a group with 40,000 members. In the footage, Nigar's now ex-husband's face is blurred but hers is clearly visible.
She believes her ex secretly filmed her to blackmail her brother, a prominent critic of Azerbaijan's president. She says her mother was told the video would be released on Telegram unless her brother stopped his activism.
"They look at you as if you are a disgrace. Who cares if you were married?" says Nigar.
Nigar says she confronted her ex-husband about the video and he denied making it. We tried to get a comment from him, but he didn't reply.
Nigar is still struggling to move on with her life: "I can't recover. I see therapists twice a week," she says. "They say there is no progress so far. They ask if I can forget it, and I say no."
The pictures of Nigar and Sara were both reported to Telegram, but the platform did not respond. Their experience is far from unique.
The BBC has been monitoring 18 Telegram channels and 24 groups in countries ranging from Russia to Brazil, and Kenya to Malaysia. The total number of subscribers is nearly two million.
