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By Purushottam P. Khatri
Kathmandu, Nov. 24: Police have recently revealed the operation of dozens of secret groups and social networking sites like Instagram and Telegram, where obscene pictures were being circulated of young Nepali women, especially celebrities and models, after police began investigation on a new trend of complaints filed by the victims.
While investigating into the complaint of one of the victims, police have confirmed that she had become the victim of ‘revenge porn,’ the distribution of sexually explicit images or videos of individuals without consent.
In the last week of June, a young woman sent a message to the social media desk of the Nepal Police Headquarters asking for help. She is a familiar model and nightclub operator, said police.
The problem that the young woman was having was a new and peculiar one even to the police administration themselves.
She had complained of unauthorised use of her photos and videos on social media, tampering of photos and posting them on various social media groups and pages, and writing obscene words.
Analysing the sensitivity of the issue, the case was then transferred to the Central Cyber Bureau, Bhotahity, Kathmandu, where she lodged the complaint. Another young woman living abroad had made a similar complaint to the Nepal Police.
The Bureau is currently investigating into the two incidents and searching for the perpetrators involved. The head of the Bureau, SSP Nabind Aryal, said, “It is a crime to use someone else’s picture without consent of the person concerned. We are seriously investigating into all those involved in such wrongdoings.”
According to police, the Bureau has traced dozens of secret groups and channels opened on Instagram and the messaging app Telegram, with pictures of young women being used to spread unrestrained propaganda and obscene material.
Recently, the Bureau had shut down the ‘Himalayan Babes’ group opened by Nepali youth on the American site Reddit, a web content rating and discussion site. The slogan for this site is also given as ‘dive into anything’.
After the closure of this group (Himalayan Babes), many similar groups have been created on Instagram and Telegram, said police.
According to SSP Aryal, Nepali girls’ photos, especially celebrities, have been tempered and posted in semi-porn site from Kanda Hub, Babbal, Kabadi Meme and Lusty Group are being victimised on Instagram. In these groups, pictures of famous models, artists and young women active on social media are published portraying them as if porn stars, said SSP Aryal. Posting Nepali women’s genuine photos in their sites, they term them as ‘spoiled women of the society.’
According to last three months’ record of the Bureau, they had registered a total of 1,029 cybercrimes. Of them, the highest number of cybercrime cases were recorded on Facebook and its messenger page with a total 911 cases, 20 on WhatsApp, seven on Instagram, 29 on TikTok, and others.
SSP Aryal said that among these incidents, most cases of ‘revenge porn’ are not related to these major social networking sites as porn revenge gangs and bloggers use other little-heard of networking sites like Kabadi, Kanda Hub, Lusty Group, among others. Of the total cybercrime cases registered in the last three months, 25 per cent are related to revenge porn-oriented crime, said police.
-The Rising Nepal
