It all started with a warning — Telegram groups infamous for disseminating illegal sexual content had their sights set on student Stasa Ivkovic. According to an anonymous tip she received in 2021, these groups were actively seeking intimate photos of Ivkovic and attempting to gather her personal information. 'They discovered everything — my address, the identities of my parents, and all my other personal details,' revealed the founder of the Belgrade-based rights group Osnazene, or 'Empowered Women'. This was followed by a relentless barrage of vulgar and abusive messages and comments on her social media accounts.

This incident marked the beginning of Ivkovic's prolonged foray into the shadowy realms of social media chat groups in Serbia, where members frequently share revenge porn, child pornography, and other illicit images. Ivkovic, along with two other women from Osnazene, managed to infiltrate several Telegram groups and subsequently exposed the methods employed to share, buy, and request illegal content. Osnazene published their findings in a report in June, estimating that approximately 10,000 messages are exchanged daily in the groups they monitored in Serbia, with one of the largest boasting up to 70,000 members. According to Ivkovic, members often use coded terms like 'teen trade' or '-18' to search for child pornography. Even more disturbingly, 'male family members, predominantly sons, take photos of their mothers and sisters and then send them to these groups for rating, sharing, and various other purposes,' Ivkovic disclosed. The images shared online also include upskirting pictures, photographs taken under women's skirts on public transport. 'Women are literally not safe anywhere,' Ivkovic asserted. In one particularly harrowing instance, a video of a rape was shared in one Telegram group, with the victim only becoming aware of its existence after it had been circulated across numerous chats. The video later surfaced on a pornographic website but was swiftly removed.

Serbia's Commissioner for Protection of Equality attributes the proliferation of these groups in the Balkan nation to 'deep-rooted, traditional, patriarchal stereotypes about gender roles in families and communities, where women are perceived as the property of men'. These findings come amid heightened scrutiny of Telegram following the arrest of its founder, Pavel Durov, in France last month. Durov has been charged with multiple counts of failing to curb extremist and illegal content on the widely-used messaging app. Telegram has positioned itself as a 'neutral' alternative to US-owned platforms, which have been criticized for their commercial exploitation of users' personal data. However, critics of Telegram frequently accuse it of serving as a digital marketplace where users can share extreme sexual imagery, disinformation, and traffic drugs. Serbia has a complex history with encrypted apps. A massive FBI-led sting operation in 2021 targeting the Sky ECC app resulted in the arrest of a prominent figure from the Serbian underworld, after accounts linked to the suspect posted images of gang members dismembering corpses near the capital Belgrade. The rapid expansion of illicit social media groups has been a persistent issue in Serbia in recent years. Serbia's Special Prosecutor's Office for High Tech Crimes did not respond to AFP inquiries about ongoing investigations against chat groups. Authorities, however, have been sluggish to act, with only 13 groups shut down by officials, according to a report in a local investigative outlet. Activists like Ivkovic argue that the problem is escalating due to government inaction. Unlike in neighboring Montenegro and Croatia, Serbia lacks specific laws governing the sharing of unauthorized recordings and the distribution of pornographic content, including revenge porn. Legal expert Jelena Drndarski noted that while suspects in possession of child pornography can be prosecuted, victims of revenge porn must pursue a civil case against the perpetrators, who are challenging to track due to their use of anonymous profiles on platforms like Telegram. From early 2011 to mid-April 2024, 717 individuals were charged with possessing child pornography and exploiting minors, but only 408 were convicted — most receiving fines and suspended sentences. Belgrade's Autonomous Women's Centre (AZC) has called for stricter laws against the sharing of unauthorized and illicit content, with a petition signed by tens of thousands of people. Nevertheless, even with new laws, the lives of victims remain bleak, according to AZC's Vanja Macanovic. 'These videos and photos remain online indefinitely, and the victims live in constant fear that someone will see them again, potentially reigniting the cycle of violence,' Macanovic stated.