In Italy, a Facebook page was shut down after thousands of men posted intimate images of their partners, sisters, and strangers without their consent, following public outcry and numerous complaints to the police.
Since its launch in 2019, the Mia Moglie (My Wife) group became a hub for hundreds of thousands of photos of women, aimed at eliciting comments and offers from nearly 32,000 predominantly male participants.
The posts ranged from swinging partnerships to photos that women shared with their partners, who then posted them on the site. Most of the images were taken during intimate moments; the photos were published without the women’s consent, according to the Italian Postal Police, responsible for digital surveillance.
According to the police, since Mia Moglie appeared, more than 2,000 complaints were filed with Meta and local authorities, leading to criminal proceedings and the page’s ultimate closure on August 20.
“All comments will be entered into our information system”
– Barbara Strappato
After the Closure and the Response
The closure of the group was a response to a complaint to Meta, initiated by feminist activist Carolina Capria. She posted on her Instagram about filing a report with the Postal Police. “There are dozens of groups where people share photos of women,” she wrote, referring to the reply to her original post with a screenshot of the Mia Moglie group, which had tens of thousands of participants.
“There are dozens of groups where people share photos of women”
– Carolina Capria
Among the strongest examples were cases where men offered photos of their wives for money, with data about age, weight, breast size, and the number of sexual partners. Some commenters praised her breasts; others expressed a desire to see her in lingerie.
“Put your hands between her thighs and see if she wakes up.”
– One of the commentators
A Meta Italy spokesperson stated that the site was removed for violating policies on the sexual exploitation of adults. “We do not allow content that threatens or promotes sexual violence, sexual abuse, or sexual exploitation on our platforms,” the Meta statement said, provided to the Postal Police.
“We do not allow content that threatens or promotes sexual violence, sexual abuse, or sexual exploitation on our platforms,”
– Meta
The case also prompted comparisons with the French case of group rape connected to Dominik Peliko, who last year was sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugs, rape, and inviting strangers to rape his then-wife Giselle Pelico. In online comments Capria noted that the Mia Moglie example points to systemic problems and warned that many similar sites really exist.
Mia Moglie is not the first such platform to be removed by Italian authorities. The Dipreisti group with nearly 16,000 participants, including people seeking sexual services for nude photos, has closed a dozen times and subsequently reappeared on WhatsApp and Telegram, all linked to the OnlyFans site, according to the Postal Police.
Since participants can register anonymously under aliases, bringing charges without the site’s administrators’ help is complicated. Dipreisti previously went by La Bibbia 5.0 and other names; since 2024 the number of reports about pornographic groups on Telegram has risen; “Channels revive faster than they close,” added Strappato.
In Italy, there is a “revenge porn” law enacted in 2019, which punishes the illicit distribution of explicit images with up to six years in prison. Many sites appear on Telegram, which does not always actively assist in investigations, according to the police. “Regarding Telegram, we are seeing a lack of cooperation from the platform; they claim they do not store user data, unlike other platforms,” said Strappato to La Repubblica.
“Citizens can report illegal groups to the Postal Police, but without effective internal deletion tools, results will be only temporary. Until developers implement procedures that allow the complete destruction of channels, bots, mirrors, and cloud services – and immediately block accounts that reproduce them – any bans will be only a temporary halt.”
After completing a thorough investigation of Mia Moglie, which includes contacting women who can be identified, the police will refer the case to the Rome prosecutor’s office for further charges.