“They threatened to tie me and my son to a horse”: Russian groups attacking women via Telegram

The story of her son’s adoption began with joy, but has seen moments of horror because of users of the application of Mail service Telegram that began to threaten her.

Ekaterina Frolova decided to adopt a minor after seeing in a photo the “ridiculous clothes” in which he was dressed in an orphanage. “I knew instantly that this kid shouldn’t stay there, he would never understand,” he says.

Ekaterina is a hairdresser in the Kamchatka Peninsula, a region of volcanoes in Russia’s Far East. She had always wanted to adopt and when she finally met the baby she felt instant link.

The boy, she said, raised his hands and snuggled up as if he had known her forever. This happened just when the coronavirus started hitting. Ekaterina wanted to share her happiness, in addition to reducing compulsory detention, which is why she created an Instagram profile dedicated to her new son.

But this story full of photos of the minor led her to be found and brutally attacked by groups organized in Telegram. His sin, according to the attackers, was the adoption of a Métis child.

Prejudice and hatred

Telegram has more than 500 million users and is owned by Russian Pavel Durov. In addition to its characteristic of sending messages between people, it is distinguished by so-called channels that allow it to reach unlimited audiences.

For this reason, and its refusal to share its users’ data with governments, Telegram has become a favorite app for coordinating protest movements like in Belarus, Iran and Hong Kong.

But also, the company is accused of not doing enough to purge extremist channels run by people linked to the so-called Islamic State or the Capitol riots of January of this year, for example.

In his home country, Russia, the rampant misogyny of many platform users is reported put in danger women’s lives.

In January 2021, Telegram became for a few weeks the most downloaded non-gaming application in the world.

Silent moderators

“They told me black people don’t live long in Russia,” Ekaterina recounted how members of a Telegram channel called The Male State began their campaign against her. He specifies that he receives hundreds of violent messages every day.

In addition, she claims that they threatened to tie her and her son to a horse and leave them in the middle of a road. They also told him that the two had to be “tied to two cars traveling in the opposite direction to tear them apart.”

But the scariest part was when they released the details of your workplace so that everyone in the channel can see them.

Ekaterina explains that the founder of The Male State publishes articles against women who have had sex with black or Caucasian men. Despite posting openly racist and misogynistic content, the mother says she was unable to get a response from Telegram moderators.

The channel’s founder also did not respond to a BBC interview request.

Ekaterina is far from the only woman to say that these Russian groups using Telegram sent her violent messages.

Activists and models, as well as women with much lower profiles, also said they were victims of these so-called “moral crusades“.

For nearly four years, a channel called Skin Market regularly posted private information, including addresses and passport photos, of women who the group said had worked as escorts.

The channel had more than 250,000 subscribers. Although it was ultimately banned earlier this year, there are still many similar channels on the platform.

“Nobody’s land”

Feminist activist Daria Serenko from Moscow claims that a Telegram group posted a photo of her home and subsequently started following her.

His private information came to light after he campaigned to support Russia’s so-called political prisoners.

Serenko compared his situation to that of the police officers whose details were published on another channel, after the January protests in favor of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

This information was deleted after three days, emphasizes Serenko, while, on the other hand, “the violence against women“.

Digital security adviser Raphael Mimoun describes channels such as those used to persecute women in Russia as “no man’s land” and “without restraint.”

While Telegram does not yet have a strong user base in the United States, the app is also slowly drawing people there and opens up the possibility of hate channels on the rise.

“Underground groups”

Megan Squire, a computer expert, attempted to post some of her personal information on some far-right Telegram channels in the United States.

Squire, who is a professor at Elon University in North Carolina, specializes in investigating hate groups and toxic behavior on social media.

He explains that he has seen “many cases” of personal phone numbers and home addresses of various activists on the platform. And he adds that he denounced all these channels to Telegram and never received a response. Further, she notes that she is resigned to the fact that, legally, there is not much to do.

“The app works in another country. The groups are underground. And a lot of that is protected by the US First Amendment, ”he adds.

Squire says that while all of the major platforms are a magnet for this type of content, and “it’s frustrating” that Telegram hasn’t taken the proper steps “which anyone would simply call content moderation.”

BBC Mundo