Men covertly filming women at night and profiting from footage, BBC finds

Men covertly filming women at night and profiting from footage, BBC finds

This text describes an investigative report into men covertly filming women in public, particularly on nights out in Manchester, UK. Here is a summary of the key points:

– Men were filming women without their consent or knowledge, often focusing on upskirt and other intrusive footage.
– The investigation identified some of the most prolific operators running multiple social media accounts (YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram) with potentially hundreds of millions of views on these videos.
– Among those identified were a local taxi driver and men from Sweden, Norway, and Monaco. Specifically, a Swedish man named Florjan Reka runs a significant YouTube channel with nearly 200 million views and 399,000 subscribers. His brother, Roland, was also seen filming.
– These videos often focus on women in dresses or skirts, filmed from low angles emphasizing parts of their bodies. The content frequently attracts misogynistic comments.
– Grace and Sophie (pseudonyms), two young women filmed without their consent, discovered footage of themselves online after the fact, causing distress and fear about going out.
– Filming in public is not necessarily illegal, but such videos may breach harassment or voyeurism laws.
– Platforms like YouTube and TikTok reacted by removing some channels, but videos remain active on Facebook and Instagram.
– The report highlights broader issues of image-based abuse and exploitation of new technologies (e.g., smart glasses for covert filming), with calls from public officials to better tackle harassment amplified by technology.

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Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More