"Telegram: Where women's nudes are shared without consent", 17 February 2022

... After months of investigating Telegram, [BBC] found[s] 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.

... We saw group administrators asking members to send intimate images of ex-partners, colleagues or fellow-students to an automated account, so they could be published without revealing the identity of the sender... Personal details like home addresses and parents' phone numbers were posted alongside explicit pictures.

... "According to Telegram and its owner, they don't want to censor users," says Natalia Krapiva, tech legal counsel at digital rights group Access Now. But [the BBC] research has shown this light-touch approach to moderation has led Telegram to become a haven for the leaking and sharing of intimate images. Telegram does not have a dedicated policy to tackle the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, but its terms of service make users agree "not to post illegal pornographic content on publicly viewable Telegram channels, bots, etc"... [T]he removal of intimate images appears not to be a priority.

... Telegram declined an interview with us, but in a statement it told us it does proactively monitor public spaces and process user reports about content which violates its terms of service. Telegram did not confirm if posting people's intimate images without consent is allowed on the platform, or whether they are removed.