There are more than 66,000 members of the group (Picture: Shutterstock / Wiki)
‘Wh*re for sale’ – this is the first message Metro.co.uk stumbled on after secretly joining a Telegram channel called ‘Albkings’.
There are more than 66,000 members, mostly men from Albania and Kosovo, in the group who share intimate pictures and videos of women they know – without their permission.
There are hundreds if not thousands of images, and they are all used to harass, shame and blackmail the victims as they are touted for sale.
Women’s names and surnames, mobile numbers, and even addresses, are being posted along the explicit content, as users set prices for them.
Some of the videos depicting various sexual acts appear to have been secretly filmed, without the knowledge of the victim.
Meanwhile, many men appear to be sharing nude pictures of their own girlfriends and wives.
Screengrabs show that users are leaking the personal details of women (Picture: Metro.co.uk)
The process is straightforward: they post screengrabs of women’s social media profiles, mostly on Instagram or TikTok, and then ask for ‘info’.
It does not take long, sometimes only minutes, until another user disseminates the personal data of the victim or a private picture of her.
Some men simply ask, ‘Info bro?’, while others comment ‘Do you have a wh*re’s number or snap boys?’ and ‘Do you have pictures of her p***y?’.
But this is just a back-up account – ‘Albkings’ initially had 110,000 followers until it was shut down by Telegram following an investigation.
Men can simply request for ‘info’ on women (Picture: Metro.co.uk)
Within days, the new channel has regained more than half of its followers.
The channel administrator himself posted on the group, boasting about the return of the channel: ‘Share the news on neighbourhood groups that Albkings has returned on Telegram.’
Contacts of sex workers trying to attract customers are also shared, but the group is mostly used as a space to openly denigrate women.
It often seems that men then contact victims on social media or through their phone number to abuse them.
Telegram banned the channel, but a back-up has now appeared (Picture: Metro.co.uk)
The Telegram scandal is the latest in an alarming wave of cyber violence in Albania, which seems to be going unchecked.
Prime minister Edi Rama met with TikTok officials in February to discuss ‘the need to increase vigilance against violence and online hate language blackmail’.
Their meeting in Munich came after a 27-year-old Albanian woman took her own life. It is alleged that her partner posted an ‘intimate’ photo of her on a social media platform.
Albania and Kosovo are not the only countries, which seem to have reported such problems with cyber violence against women.
Several Balkan countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Bulgaria and Serbia reported an escalation in such violence.
Last year, a bodybuilder livestreamed his ex-wife Nermin Sulejmanovic’s execution on Instagram.
In February, a university in Kazakhstan collected and – then leaked on WhatsApp – the ‘virginity status’ of 190 female students.
Metro.co.uk has contacted Telegram for a comment.
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