Facebook page Mia Moglie had almost 32,000 members before being taken down this week.
Meta, the company that owns Facebook, has shut down an Italian group where men shared intimate photos of their wives and girlfriends online without their consent.
The Mia Moglie group, which translates into English as “My Wife”, had almost 32,000 members before it was removed by authorities this week following a public outcry.
The page, which was accessible and visible to all, launched in 2019 but only became active in May of this year.The group posted photographs of women in everyday situations: sleeping, changing their clothes, shopping at the supermarket, sunbathing.
Many of the unsuspecting women were photographed in their underwear.
The images were followed by a sea of vulgar, misogynistic and sexist comments, with some men saying they would “rape” the woman pictured in the photograph.
The page was highlighted on Instagram by writer Carolina Capria who said she felt “nauseous” and “scared” after viewing the non-consensual photos and reading the comments.
Capria’s appeal not to remain silent about the page was taken up by No Justice No Peace Italy which wrote on its Instagram page: “This is a blatant form of abuse, non-consensual pornography, and systemic misogyny… Anyone who participates in this outrage is complicit in a crime.”
The numerous protests and media outcry prompted action from Meta which removed the page for “violating our policies against the sexual exploitation of adults”, while Italy’s postal police have reportedly launched an investigation into the case.
When those behind the page realised they had been discovered, they began sharing links to Telegram addresses where they planned to continue operating.
The group’s members included “professionals, entrepreneurs, public officials, mayoral candidates, doctors, and journalists”, according to newspaper Corriere della Sera, which reported that the names of those who commented and shared photos are included in a report that will be submitted to the prosecutor’s office.
“This idea of toxic masculinity must be fought,” Fiorella Zabatta, spokesperson for Europa Verde and member of the Green and Left Alliance (AVS), said in relation to the case, “and we must all take action: civil society and even politicians.”
The discovery of the group has led to parallels with the case in France of Gisèle Pelicot who, over the course of a decade, was covertly drugged and raped by her husband along with dozens of other men who raped her while she was unconscious.
In a statement, Roberta Mori of the centre-left Partito Democratico (PD), said the Mia Moglie group was “further evidence of structural virtual violence rooted in the same patriarchal culture of domination that allowed the rape of Gisèle Pelicot for ten years, starting with a similar online group. Enabling, tolerating, or ignoring such forms of virtual violence means being complicit in a culture of rape that has survived for centuries and continues to affect women and girls.”
Since 2019, following the introduction of Article 612-ter of the Italian Criminal Code, anyone who distributes sexually explicit images or videos without the consent of the person concerned can be punished with one to six years in prison and fines ranging from €5,000 to €15,000.
Over the years, however, hundreds of online groups have been documented, particularly on Telegram, in which men share private images and videos of women without their consent.
The material in these groups often qualifies as revenge porn, the practice of sharing private images or videos without consent as a form of revenge against one’s partner or ex-partner.
