Montreal police investigating after private images of women being shared unknowingly on social media

MONTREAL (CityNews) – Montreal Police are investigating an online conversation between more than 3,000 men on the social media platform Telegram.

Naked pictures of women were being exchanged without the women’s knowledge or consent.

Once some of the women found out, they, along with one male ally, started an investigation, which the SPVM is now taking over.

“We discovered that these guys either had kids or worked in high places like at the bank,” said an anonymous woman.

“Basically, starting around April 27, I started getting a lot of followers on Snapchat,” explained another woman. “A total of 107 new followers in an hour. And I didn’t quite understand what was going on.”

After inquiring with a friend on the recent surge in interest on her social media page, the woman was advised that it might be related to a social media group, on Telegram, an app similar to Instagram.

The group was composed of thousands of Montreal men violating women online, and in some cases underage children.

“We’re talking about Telegram. There is an unfortunate situation with hidden chat rooms and because the means of telegram is encrypted in such a way it’s a little more difficult for the authorities to help people out,” explained Steve Waterhouse, a cybersecurity expert.

“There were nasty things like; put her aside she’s going to be good when she’s 18. But she’s an 11-month-old child. You know,” explained a woman who saw the descriptions under pictures of her daughter. And after a quick search, found several explicit pictures of herself.

“It’s appalling. And from the moment I saw that I wasn’t able to go on with my day. I wasn’t able to sleep at night. I had panic attack over panic attack,” she explained.

The mother decided to take things into her own hands. Along with a friend she started taking screenshots all the identifiable men in the group sharing pictures, and exposing their identities on Instagram.

“I saw it was two girls really going in and sharing every information. And I was like ‘oh wow’. They are brave for doing it. And I keep things to myself what if this was someone that I knew,” explained an anonymous man.

Soon after, they were joined by a few other women and one man who helped them gather as much information as possible to give to the police, and share on social media.

“After I posted my video, I got a lot of backlash. Like men were coming in my DM’s. Completely aggressive, condescending, disrespectful. And some of them where like ‘hey that’s not me, it’s that dude over there’,” explained Tammy Terrell, a women’s rights advocate.

One of the victims says since exposing the group, she’s received threats online and was threatened on the street by two men.

When she arrived home, she found her apartment had been ransacked and robbed.

CityNews reached out to the SPVM for a statement. In a translated response, the SPVM said: “Last week, a group involving thousands of people shared on the platform Telegram, intimate images of young women obtained without their consent. The SPVM opened an investigation right way, to shed light on this situation. The investigation is ongoing, and the SPVM is working in collaboration with the Sureté du Québec and the Laval Police on this case.”

Anyone with any information is being asked to contact the SPVM at 514-393-1133 or online.