A few days ago, members of the association for the empowerment and development of citizens "Osažena" published the results of a three-month research on revenge pornography that is shared in groups on the Telegram social network. Namely, Staša Ivković from the "Strengthened" association infiltrated one such group, which shares revenge and child pornography, as well as incest.
In those groups, he says, more than 10 messages are sent daily, and one of the largest groups has almost 70 members who are looking for photos and recordings and often pay for them. It happens that private recordings or photos that were sent in confidence are also found there, and the victims never find out.
The association states that the administrators of these Telegram groups receive photos and recordings with or without monetary compensation, and then sell them for at least 50 euros.
"After they make enough money from those victims, they share that material publicly, because they can no longer make money from them since the photos/videos have already spread enough," the research says.
However, after the publication of the research of the "Strengthened" association, members of these groups claimed that it was a sum of less than 50 euros, thus directly admitting the sale of these contents. The problem also arises when it is necessary to find the identity of the person sharing such materials, because Telegram provides its users with complete protection and anonymity. Users of this network do not have to leave almost any personal information, not even a phone number.
Despite this, the members of the association managed to find authentic evidence, which they forwarded to the Prosecutor's Office for High-Tech Crime.
VICTIMS ARE SILENT, INSTITUTIONS OF ŽMURE
In an interview with "Vreme", Staša Ivković says that such cases very often end without an epilogue. In addition to weak legal regulations, the victims' lack of trust in the work of institutions also contributes to this.
"Women are often demotivated to report, because they hear stories from others in which someone reported that their content was shared without permission, but that the case is still not resolved. Unfortunately, such experiences are common", says Staša Ivković.
He adds that the "Strengthened" association also published the results of the survey, which shows that in most cases the reaction of the institutions was insufficient, and sometimes it was completely absent.
"That's why it's easier for women to seek help through informal channels, so they turn to us or similar associations for advice and support."
Staša Ivković herself was a victim of revenge pornography when her Instagram profile was misused on a Telegram group a few years ago. She then decided that she didn't want this form of violence to go unnoticed, so she continued to help those going through the same. However, after more than three years, no legal epilogue to her case is in sight.
"One prosecutor told me that if I'm interested in how far my case has come, I call and check every six months. The perpetrators were never heard, and for all these years not a single hearing or interrogation was organized", explains our interlocutor.
WHAT THE LAW SAYS
The Criminal Code does not recognize revenge pornography as a separate criminal offense, but it can be subsumed under other criminal offenses such as unauthorized publication and display of other people's files, portraits and videos, as well as unauthorized photography. Namely, such cases are not prosecuted ex officio, but only on the private claim of the injured party. Therefore, it is necessary for the victim to be the one to file a private lawsuit against the perpetrator. This is particularly problematic precisely because of the fear of further victimization. Due to the seriousness of such cases and the fear of further condemnation from the environment, it is completely understandable that the victim will not be willing to report this kind of injury, so there is a fear that the number of these cases in practice is much higher.
The Criminal Code prescribes penalties for the criminal act of unauthorized publication and display of someone else's file, portrait or video, which include punishing the responsible person with a fine or a sentence of up to two years in prison.
Vanja Macanović from the Autonomous Women's Center emphasizes that this association launched an initiative to amend the Criminal Code, which would allow such cases to be prosecuted ex officio. The petition was signed by more than 20.000 citizens, but this proposal was not even considered.
"In December 2023, we had a meeting with representatives of the Working Group for Amendments to the Criminal Code, who then told us that the proposal was not even considered, even though we submitted the initiative back in May 2022," emphasizes Vanja Macanović.
This proposal to amend the Code implies that revenge pornography will be recognized as a separate criminal offense. It is not enough for this work to be treated as an unauthorized publication of photos and videos, because it is almost impossible to determine who published these contents.
"Someone to whom this is happening in the digital space cannot find out on their own who is behind it. As a private criminal prosecutor, you cannot obtain a court order to seize someone's phone or computer, nor to determine from which IP address it was sent. The victims need the help of the police and the Prosecutor's Office", explains Vanja Macanović.
But when it comes to a private criminal lawsuit, such opportunities are not available to the injured party. That is why, the interlocutor claims, such forms of digital violence cannot be stopped until it becomes a criminal offense that the Prosecutor's Office would prosecute ex officio.
Vanja Macanović recalls the case from 2021 when the identity of the administrator of the Telegram group "Nišlijke" was revealed, which had more than 24.000 members who actively sent intimate photos and videos of adult and underage girls. It is suspected that the members of this group shared the phone numbers and addresses of the victims in addition to the photos.
"At one point there was a lull. That's when Telegram reacted, which began mass shutting down such groups. The administrator of the group ended up in custody. However, after two years, the Prosecutor's Office for High-Tech Crime dismissed the criminal charges against him and he was not prosecuted for endangering the safety of those girls."
POSITIVE EXAMPLES FROM THE REGION
The importance of this problem is shown by positive examples from neighboring countries where this issue has become legally regulated, through the prescription of special criminal acts. Namely, in Montenegro, the criminal offense of abuse of someone else's video, photograph, portrait, audio-recording and file with sexually explicit content has been introduced since recently, which prescribes a prison sentence of up to two years, while in Croatia this kind of behavior is legally qualified as the criminal offense of abuse of a recording sexually explicit content since 2022.
11 member states of the European Union have this criminal offense in their legislation, which criminalizes the distribution, dissemination, sharing and publication of sexual content without the consent of the person appearing on those recordings or photographs.
Nevertheless, Serbia is still quite far from these examples. Hope exists and can be found precisely in the campaign of the Autonomous Women's Center "Swear to the Law", which was launched symbolically on Women's Day this year. This campaign is exactly the continuation of the initiative that the Government of Serbia silently rejected in December 2023, without even considering it properly. Since then, the new Government began its mandate, and there was no mention of possible changes to the Code. One thing is certain - shutting down groups on social networks and hunting down the perpetrators on their own cannot be a permanent solution. One must go deeper.
