Telegram Shuts Serbian ‘Revenge Porn’ Groups Exposed by BIRN

Instant messaging service Telgram has removed the group Oralna podrška (Oral support) with over 50,000 members - one of the largest Serbian Telegram groups that shared women's intimate photos and videos, as well as porn content - along with 12 other groups that published revenge porn.

"Telegram has shut down groups Oralna podrška and Samo Domaće Dame, they do not exist anymore," a person with the username Dzoni, one of the Oralna podrška's admins, wrote.

Some of the largest groups, such as Perverzija Balkan with 46.462 members, OnlyBalkan 18+ with 35,143 members and Loženje na maxx with 21,651 members are still active, however.

Admins of the banned groups are also using those still active to invite members to new groups they are launching.

"We are coming back stronger than ever before, we are now at 1 per cent of membership that we had, join the resurrected group and become once again part of the strongest family on Telegram," wrote Dzoni, inviting people to join his new group that currently has 900 members.

A BIRN investigation into revenge porn in Serbia discovered 16 Telegram groups that posted explicit photos and videos of women without their consent.

Since the investigation was published, BIRN has been in contact with Telegram representatives who sent the list of these groups to moderators for checks. In just a few hours they had removed several groups.

Revenge porn group admin Dzoni said admins have not been informed of the reasons behind the groups' removal.

Users in other banned groups also did not know the reasons for the shut-downs until a user shared a link with the BIRN story in the group Vatrena soba, which has about 13,000 members.

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