Rape and revenge porn: Serbian Telegram groups preying on women [Video]

It began with a warning — Telegram groups notorious for sharing illicit sexual content had set their sights on student Stasa Ivkovic.

The groups were searching for intimate photos of Ivkovic and trying to track down her personal information, according to an anonymous tip she received in 2021.

“They found out everything — my address, who my parents are, and all my other personal information,” the founder of the Belgrade-based rights group Osnazene — or “Empowered Women” — told AFP.

Then came a daily deluge of vulgar and insulting messages and comments on her social media accounts.

The episode sparked Ivkovic’s years-long descent into the dark corners of social media chat groups in Serbia, where members regularly share revenge porn, child pornography and other unlawful images.

Ivkovic and two other women from Osnazene were able to infiltrate multiple Telegram groups and later exposed the methods used to share, purchase and …