again and again. i can't even compute how many people might have already seen them. the only thing that i feared about was what if my mother—in—law found out, what if any of them found out? in this moment right now people copying them, downloading them and sharing them. i am leaving now. and unmasked, a man running an online community peddling explicit images of at least 150 women. that is really not who i expected to see at all. enjoy that sunny weather. that is it for me. bye for now. i am monica, a bbc news presenter and reporter. thanks, everyone. great show. thank you so much. like manyjournalists, social media helps me do myjob. they know me so well because every time i take a selfie, they say do you want the lights up. thank you, guys. it is how i share my work, stay on top of the news, and it is also where anyone can contact me about a story. that's how i got tipped off about a disturbing new online phenomenon. hi, guys. tanweer shah is a financial consultant turned social media influence. i hope everyone is having a good saturday. she told me how she discovered someone had posted a picture of her on a site called reddit. i assumed reddit is a positive forum where people share reviews and talk about people in a positive way, but when i clicked on it, i was like, what is this? i was just shocked. reddit is a social media platform with more than 50 million daily users worldwide. it brings together news, users videos and pictures, as well as billions of comments. it is best known for users being able to set up their own groups to discuss almost any topic they want. most of them are harmless. but she found a photograph from her instagram account had been posted in a reddit group dedicated to men leering at women. what made me feel worse is when i looked at the picture and then i clicked on the comments below, i saw so many men commenting about trying to find out information about me, my name, where i live, the things they would do to me, which were both degrading and sexual. they were calling me names, and that is what really got to me, because i felt so objectified and i felt as though i was their property where they were allowed to say and do whatever they wanted to me. the group weren'tjust sharing images lifted from women's social media, there were also posting intimate photos. to protect the women, we are not showing any real images and have created a mock—up of the type of material the group were sharing. some of the pictures appear to be nude selfies, probably sent between partners and not meant for anyone else. there are images here that have probably been sent to people in private in a safe space that are now no longer private. some videos on the reddit group are far more graphic. it looks like women have been secretly filmed having sex. it is really shocking, really, really shocking. do you think she knows her image is being shared on this thread? she probably has absolutely no idea. there are more than 20,000 people signed up to the group. as far as i can tell, most of them are men, and hardly any of them are using their real names. the words being used make me feel sick to my stomach. i am so traumatised by this thread, ijust can't begin to imagine how women whose explicit images where shared must be feeling. since meeting tanweer, i have been searching across reddit. i have found dozens more groups doing the same thing. there are hundreds of explicit images and videos in this folder. i am literally looking through now. and it is really, really awful to see. i am military so is shocked. i am literally so shocked. never in a million years i never knew something like this even exists on the internet. the deeper i go on reddit, the worse it gets. within almost all of these groups, men are selling links to huge collections of explicit images. £5, £10, £20, these images and videos are clearly being sold and bought on this reddit thread, and do the women in them even know? probably not, no. the trade in nudes online has become so widespread, it now has a name. collector culture is the term that is because many of the men collect these images in large repositories, and there is a certain status in having a large number of images, and this can be on small, private chat groups, facebook groups, whatsapp groups, but there are also websites and groups where tens of thousands of men are meeting in trading and sharing images. how does collector culture happen? it might be that the nude image has been taken with consent, but it might be that the image has been taken without that woman knowing it was taken. the image might have been hacked from her account. so there is a number of different ways in which these images can then be uploaded onto these websites and taken and shared. 0n the group tanweer showed me, the online abuse has followed women into the real world. users are trying to work out the names, addresses and numbers of the women pictured so they can find them in real life. i find one woman whose personal details were discussed by more than 20 people in the group. it is monica here. hello. i'm so sorry to hear the awful comments that you have been getting. like tanvi, her instagram picture was posted on reddit. now she's being hounded by the group. have they contacted your friends or your family or anyone in your inner circle? how many messages do you get? she is worried what the men might do next. do you think your private details are being shared online as well? that is vile. i'm really sorry to hear that. so how many other women are being targeted in the same way? there are more than 15,000 images posted in this group. we looked at 1000 of them, and found intimate pictures of at least 150 different women. reddit has a history of hosting controversial sexual content. leaked celebrity sex tapes have been shared on the site. several a—list stars are the target of what appears to be one of the biggest celebrity hacking leaks. posts on the websites 4chan and reddit say the celebrities were exposed. then four years ago it had to close down a reddit group where users were sharing what is known as deep fake pornography. famous actors were superimposed into real adult movies. reddit, the site where community started changed its rules to forbid involuntary fake pornography. reddit says its rules are now much tighter. it recently changed its definition of non consensual sexual content prohibited on the site, but how come i can still find so much of it? it is about the way reddit polices itself. reddit can be seen to be more of a kind of wild west space than other platforms. really, they are quite light touch, compared to the other platforms. and that is an intentional choice to give power to the people who use the platform. reddit insists it is not a light touch. it says it has a dedicated internal safety team, which uses a special software to remove harmful content. it also employs admins to enforce reddit�*s rules, but the important part of overseeing the groups is done by what is called moderators. moderators kind of signed up to help police the content in their community. they have the power to remove posts, to ban people and these people are being paid, but they have —— and these people aren't being paid, but they have volunteered to keep the communities is obeying the rules. has this been an issue for reddit? if you are not policing things very tightly from the top, it is much more difficult to make sure that abuse of those platforms and people who use them and the content shared on them is kept in check. reddit expects its moderators to help police the groups, but i found a moderator who does the opposite. remember the group that targeted tanvi and the other women? it was set up by the moderator. he goes by the name zippomad, but who is he? i look at his previous comments on reddit. he has posted a screenshot of an image which he said in the description, oh it is a leak of a sex tape. here is another one, i have her number and her address. so he obviously has private details, private information of women, which he is willing to share. that is your address, where you live. you can even live at home with your family and your parents. this moderator also calls out people who criticise the group. someone has complained, asking zippomad to shut down the page, and then zippomad has commented, "we have snitches on here". i want to track down the so—called moderator. the only clue about zippomad's identity is that strange name. it turns out he collect zippo lighters. now we're on to something. zippomad is offering to sell a lighter. i am going to reply on a fake account, and to pretend that i want to buy a lighter. it's worth a try. it is easy for zippomad to remain anonymous online, but even when women know who is responsible for leaking their private images, there might be no protection from the law. i have come to meet georgie. in 2020, a stranger contacted her on social media to tell her a folder of intimate images of her was being shared online. this time, it wasn't on reddit. hello. georgie, how are you? you look cold, come in. so nice to see you. i knew exactly what those pictures were. i remembered those pictures — they were ones that i shared with an ex partner many years before that i was assured by that ex partner had been deleted. and now, a complete stranger was sending those images back to me. i can't even compute how many people might have already seen them, and there is no way of stopping more people seeing them. in this moment, right now, people might be looking at them, people might be copying them, downloading them, sharing them. they can even print them out and put them on the wall if they want to. 0nce something is on the internet, it is on the internet. how did what you experience impact your life? it's horrible but i have to compartmentalise it because there is literally nothing i can do about it. what is harder is trusting new people. particularly in romantic situations. i have been single for the last two years and dating is difficult.— two years and dating is difficult. ,., difficult. her ex- partner admitted _ difficult. her ex- partner admitted to _ difficult. her ex- partner admitted to her- difficult. her ex- partner admitted to her in - difficult. her ex- partner admitted to her in a - difficult. her ex- partner admitted to her in a texti admitted to her in a text message he was responsible. armed with what she thought was damning evidence, she went to the police. damning evidence, she went to the police-— the police. the day that the olice the police. the day that the police contacted _ the police. the day that the police contacted him - the police. the day that the police contacted him for - the police. the day that the | police contacted him for the first time, he sent me a text message in which he actually admitted to sharing the pictures. but he also said that he did not mean to hurt or embarrass me — that was the phrasing that he used in the message. phrasing that he used in the message-— phrasing that he used in the messaue. . , .,, message. that careful phrasing meant he was _ message. that careful phrasing meant he was beyond - message. that careful phrasing meant he was beyond the - message. that careful phrasing | meant he was beyond the scope of the law. meant he was beyond the scope of the lava— of the law. despite having a written admission _ of the law. despite having a written admission of- of the law. despite having a written admission of guilt . of the law. despite having ai written admission of guilt in of the law. despite having a l written admission of guilt in a text message, because he does not claim to have wanted to hurt me, i was told by the police that there was nothing they could do. and i was absolutely flabbergasted by that, that there was such a huge loophole in the legislation. that huge loophole in the legislation.— huge loophole in the le . islation. �* ., legislation. at the moment, it's only a — legislation. at the moment, it's only a criminal— legislation. at the moment, it's only a criminal offence l legislation. at the moment, | it's only a criminal offence to trade — it's only a criminal offence to trade an_ it's only a criminal offence to trade an image on one of these websites— trade an image on one of these websites if you are doing it directly— websites if you are doing it directly to cause districts to a victim _ directly to cause districts to a victim and we know that many mantra — a victim and we know that many mantra meaning these images do not want — mantra meaning these images do not want the victims to even knows — not want the victims to even knows that there is a huge gap in the — knows that there is a huge gap in the law_ knows that there is a huge gap in the law —— many men sharing these _ in the law —— many men sharing these images. the problem is these images. the problem is the law— these images. the problem is the law only focuses on a malicious ex— partner sharing an image, _ malicious ex— partner sharing an image, revenge porn, and it only— an image, revenge porn, and it only covers_ an image, revenge porn, and it only covers a small number of cases— only covers a small number of cases of— only covers a small number of cases of intimate image of use. -- abuse — cases of intimate image of use. -- abuse-— cases of intimate image of use. -- abuse. the government says it is considering _ -- abuse. the government says it is considering a _ -- abuse. the government says it is considering a proposal- it is considering a proposal from the law commission to make it illegal to share an intimate image without consent, regardless of the perpetrator�*s motives. for now, the law does not sufficiently protect women being abused online like this. but what about the tech companies? i've spoken to seven women who have struggled to get their private images removed from it. hi, how is it going? four of them so the material was never taken down and some had to wait up to eight months before it was deleted —— reddit. social media companies are saying the way they are responding to image abuse is to improve on reporting but reporting is too late. in 2a hours a piece of content can spread not only within the platform but across platforms, globally. they need to be taken down then, which is much harder. reddit said it removed more than 88,000 nonconsensual sexual images last year but you do not have to look very hard to find many more on the site. companies reddit needs to do more to invest in implementation —— reddit needs to do more to invest in implementation to prevent images being uploaded in the first place so that less is spent trying to take down images. if harm is being prevented, we have fewer women that are experiencing this form of abuse and we have fewer perpetrators. reddit told us its safety teams regularly take action against communities and users for this behaviour, including removing communities that are evading a ban. zippo mad, the moderator responsible for the group trading sexually explicit photos and videos, is one step ahead of reddit. his group has been shut down twice due to complaints, but he just sets it up again. almost 2000 more images have been shared. and there is something else about this group. this group is dedicated to sharing images of south asian women. the title of it is too offensive for me to even say. it's vile, it's a racist slur and quite frankly, i don't feel comfortable even repeating it. the comments — the comments constantly refer to women in the most racist, misogynistic and degrading way. i have spoken to several women whose naked images and videos were shared in this reddit group. only one of them was prepared to go on camera as long as we disguised her voice and identity. we are calling her ayesha and we are calling her ayesha and we are calling her ayesha and we are meeting at her home. she believed she _ we are meeting at her home. she believed she was secretly filmed. i believed she was secretly filmed. ., , believed she was secretly filmed. , ~ believed she was secretly filmed. ., , ~ , , filmed. i was shocked myself because it — filmed. i was shocked myself because it was _ filmed. i was shocked myself because it was like _ filmed. i was shocked myself because it was like is - filmed. i was shocked myself because it was like is that. because it was like is that even me? it looks like me but i don't remember it happening. i put my family through so much and being a pakistani girl, it's not right in our community for us to even get sexual before marriage or anything like that. that's not acceptable. my dad went through pure depression. my mum went through depression as well herself. ifelt through depression as well herself. i felt so ashamed of everything that was going on and that i had put them in this situation. alwaysjust and that i had put them in this situation. always just blamed myself. situation. always “ust blamed m self. q , ., situation. always “ust blamed mself. g , ., ., ., myself. ayesha got married soon after her images _ myself. ayesha got married soon after her images and _ myself. ayesha got married soon after her images and videos - after her images and videos were posted on the group. she says her new husband is very understanding but she is worried about his family finding out. i worried about his family finding out.— worried about his family finding out. i actually got married _ finding out. i actually got married it _ finding out. i actually got married it was _ finding out. i actually got married it was probably l finding out. i actually got l married it was probably the happiest day of my life. something i always looked forward to is a little kid. the only thing that i always feared about was what if my mother—in—law found out? what if any of them found out? if they found out about the videos, i don't think i would be with them.— videos, i don't think i would be with them. why do you say that? i be with them. why do you say that? l don't— be with them. why do you say that? l don't think _ be with them. why do you say that? i don't think anyone - that? i don't think anyone would accept, _ that? i don't think anyone would accept, in - that? i don't think anyone would accept, in the - that? i don't think anyone i would accept, in the muslim community, for a girl's videos to be leaked out and obviously her body being shown to thousands and thousands of men. at the time, ayesha was too scared to tell those closest to her. i scared to tell those closest to her. , ., , , scared to tell those closest to her. , .,, her. i stopped socialising, i sto ed her. i stopped socialising, i stepped going _ her. i stopped socialising, i stopped going out - her. i stopped socialising, i stopped going out of- her. i stopped socialising, i stopped going out of the i her. i stopped socialising, i- stopped going out of the house. i was in and out of psychiatric units and i don't think i even saw my body, i'd —— where i didn't have cuts all over my body. i was self—harming, suicidal attempts, because it is coming to a point where i can't bear life anymore. some charities say _ can't bear life anymore. some charities say south _ can't bear life anymore. some charities say south asian - can't bear life anymore. some i charities say south asian women are particularly vulnerable to this type of abuse.— this type of abuse. this is impacting _ this type of abuse. this is impacting women - this type of abuse. this is impacting women and - this type of abuse. this is l impacting women and girls globally but we have to put it into context of if you are a south asian girl whose conditions do not talk about these issues, you don't have these issues, you don't have the ability to go and talk to your mum necessarily or your sister or your aunt or a family relative, we have had