Italian authorities have acted and closed the harmful Facebook group, Mia Moglie. Since its 2019 launch, the group had gained close to 32,000 members, mostly men. The group came under scrutiny for sharing hundreds of thousands of intimate images of women, often posted without their consent.
Speaking at the launch event, Barbara Strappato, head of Italy’s Postal Police, underscored the gravity of the problem. She stated, “The crimes range from defamation to the dissemination of intimate material without consent. I admit that I have never seen such disturbing phrases in a social media group before. Our office worked 24 hours a day to block the page. We received more than a thousand reports in just a few hours. What happened is very serious.”
Mia Moglie was not a singular phenomenon. It had a sister organization, Dipreisti, that had close to 16,000 members. Although Dipreisti was shut down several times, Dipreisti came back on and operated through messaging platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram. The foul group is linked to a private subscription-based profile on OnlyFans. Before that, they played under the moniker “La Bibbia 5.0.” The Strappato said that much of the effort to protect child exploitation is going toward punishing the sharing of non-consensual images. This points to a deeper issue plaguing social media companies.
“There are dozens of groups where people exchange photos of women (wives, girlfriends, sisters, sisters-in-law, strangers). I visited several yesterday, flagged by you.” – Carolina Capria
Italy passed powerful legislation criminalizing “revenge porn” in 2019 as well. Now, those who nonconsensually share sexually explicit images are punishable by up to six years of incarceration. Yet, enforcement of such laws has been daunting, especially with platforms that are difficult to reach and even harder to enforce against.
Even with the violent and disgusting content spread on Mia Moglie, its admins showed a real fuck you spirit in response to the takedown. They reportedly stated, “We’ve just created a new private and secure group. Goodbye, and f**k you moralists.” This reaction highlights the continued cat and mouse game between social media companies and those who use their platforms to launch malicious attacks.
A spokesperson for Meta, Alex G. Joseph, reiterated the company’s focus on keeping users safe. “We do not allow content that threatens or promotes sexual violence, sexual abuse, or sexual exploitation on our platforms,” they stated. In their response, they agreed that if they find content which incites or encourages rape, they would take swift action. They will begin shutting down the responsible organizations and accounts and alerting law enforcement to the activity.
In addition to the primary violation of endangering minors, Strappato highlighted issues about Telegram’s willingness to cooperate with law enforcement operations. “Regarding Telegram, we’ve noticed a lack of cooperation from them with law enforcement. This is because they claim not to hold their users’ data, unlike other platforms,” she remarked.
The closure of Mia Moglie follows a recent and welcome string of actions by Italian authorities to prevent online sexual exploitation. This removal under the threat of legal action is not the first time such exploitative sites have faced removal from social media. Awareness of non-consensual image sharing is increasing at an incredible pace. In answer, police agencies and advocacy organizations have been working hard to advocate for stricter regulations and better enforcement across every digital platform.
