Rome (AP) – A website that showed photos of thousands of Italian women without their consent and attracted obscene and clear comments, was forced to close Thursday after the resonance.
The site featured by famous women, including Premier Giorgia Meloni and Alessandra Moretti, a member of the European Parliament, also included duties with idealized violence against women.
The online forum, which named its name from “Slang for Feman Genitalia”, has been in existence for at least two decades, but he drew national attention only after Moretti officially filed a complaint to the police after finding a photo of her displayed without permission.
It shows illegal photos and videos of hundreds of public figures, as well as unsuspecting actresses, influencers and ordinary women. The images were often lifted from TV or social media profiles. This counted 200,000 users and showed pictures identified by names or certain topics.
“They stole photos and clips from TV shows that I appeared for years, then replacing them and feeding on thousands of users,” Moretti said.
She said the site was among many who were “impatient”, although they had previous complaints.
“This type of site that promotes rape and violence must be closed and banned,” she said.
Following the comments of Moretti and dozens of other women’s complaints, the site administrators posted an online message on Thursday saying “with great regret” that it was closed.
They attributed “toxic behavior” to the “incorrect use of the platform that damaged its original spirit.”
Italian women, from ordinary employees and housewives to top politicians, fight against many sites showing their photos without their consent, often accompanied by obscene languages.
Their efforts have become national importance, when activists used to condemn the Facebook page, called Mia Moglie, where men have announced illegal photos of their spouses and managed to remove it.
Some men said their wives agreed that their images would be published, but no women’s comments were seen on the site.
Experts said websites depicting women’s images without their consent were “another face of physical and sexual violence.”
“Digital measures have become not only a way to control women, but also are increasingly accustomed to offending, humiliating and attacking them,” Sabrina Frasca, an activist with Differenza Donna, told Associated Press.
Mia Moglie had about 32,000 members until last week it was closed by Facebook owner, stating that she was operating against the site for a violation of our adult sexual exploitation policy.
Italy fought how to prevent sex violence and to deal with because the murder of femicide-female because of its sex-inishel as a systemic problem, deeply invaded by the Italian patriarchal culture. The series of violent incidents has again caused national debate about how to face these crimes.
“Women have always been an arena where men challenge each other and measure their masculinity,” said feminist author and activist Carolina Capria. “It’s a game where women are just a commodity that adds value to a man who has them.”
March The Italian Government approved a draft law, which for the first time introduces the legal definition of femicide into criminal law of the country and punishes it with imprisonment. The draft law still needs final approval in the lower palace to have a law.
Although the opposition on the left greeted the move, it emphasized that the new law examines only the criminal aspect of the problem while leaving economic, education and cultural Misogyny sources.