Website forced to close as Italian women fight back against unauthorized online image sharing
Website forced to close as Italian women fight back against unauthorized online image sharing
ROME (AP) — An internet site which showed photos of thousands of Italian women without their consent and attracted obscene and explicit comments was forced to shut down on Thursday after a backlash.
The site, which featured prominent women, including Premier Giorgia Meloni and European Parliament member Alessandra Moretti, also included posts which idealized violence against women.
The online forum, which took its name from slang for female genitalia, has been around for at least two decades but it only drew national attention after Moretti formally lodged a complaint with police after finding her photo displayed without her permission.
It displayed unauthorized photos and videos of hundreds of public figures, along with unsuspecting actresses, influencers and ordinary women. The images were often lifted from TV or social media profiles. It counted 200,000 users and displayed pictures identified by names or certain themes.
“They have been stealing photos and clips from TV shows I’ve appeared on for years, then altering them and feeding them to thousands of users,” Moretti said.
She said the site was among many that operate “with impunity” even though previous complaints have been filed against them.
“This type of site, which incites rape and violence, must be shut down and banned,″ she said.
Following the comments by Moretti, and complaints by dozens of other women, the site’s administrators posted an online statement on Thursday saying “with great regret” it was being shut down.
They attributed the “toxic behaviors” to a “wrong use of the platform, which damaged its original spirit.”
Italian women, from ordinary workers and housewives to top politicians, are fighting back against a proliferation of websites displaying their photos without their consent, often accompanied by obscene language.
Their efforts gained national prominence when activists earlier this summer denounced a Facebook page dubbed “Mia Moglie” (“My Wife”), where men posted unauthorized photos of their spouses and succeeded in getting it taken down.
Some men said their wives had agreed to their images being posted, but no female comments were visible on the site.
Experts said websites that display images of women without their consent were “the other face” of physical and sexual violence.
“Digital tools became not only a way for men to exercise control over women, but are increasingly used to offend, humiliate and attack them,” Sabrina Frasca, activist with anti-violence group Differenza Donna, told The Associated Press.
“Mia Moglie,” had around 32,000 members before it was shut down last week by Facebook -owner Meta, which said it acted against the site “for violating our adult sexual exploitation policies.”
Italy has been struggling with how to prevent and address gender-based violence, as femicides — the killing of women because of their gender — has emerged as a systemic problem deeply rooted in Italy’s patriarchal culture. A series of violent incidents has reignited national debate over how to confront these crimes.
“Women have always been the arena on which men challenge each other and measure their virility,” said feminist author and activist Carolina Capria. “It’s a game in which women are merely a commodity that adds value to the man who possesses them.”
Italy’s government approved a draft law in March that for the first time introduces the legal definition of femicide into the country’s criminal law and punishes it with life imprisonment. The bill still needs final approval in the lower house to become law.
While the center-left opposition welcomed the move, it stressed that the new law only tackles the criminal aspect of the problem, while leaving economic, educational and cultural sources of misogyny unaddressed.
By GIADA ZAMPANO
Associated Press
