An image uploaded at leisure can take on a life of its own, being stripped of its consent and context and resurfacing on anonymous social media sites like Telegram and Reddit. These images are later reshaped and sexualized by strangers. For many women, the injury begins long before they even know it has happened. Accordingly NFHS-5Only 33.3% of women have access to the Internet, compared to 57% of men, while the proportion of rural women is only 25%. This gap in access to technology fuels gender-based violence such as image sharing and deepfakes. The National Cybercrime Reporting Portal recorded this 76,657 incidents against women in 2025, a sharp 58% increase from 48,335 in 2024, with obscene material accounting for 37,743 cases and explicit acts accounting for 19,703 cases. This increase reflects how easily social media photos are deleted and turned into explicit content that is later shared across unmoderated Telegram channels and subreddits that escape takedown.
Revenge porn and image abuse
Revenge porn is more accurately described as non-consensual intimate image exchange This involves the distribution of private, intimate photos and videos without consent, often by former partners, acquaintances or anonymous actors who obtain images through hacking.
India has witnessed several cases like the Bois locker room Case exposing how minors distributed altered images of girls without consent, normalizing objectification in peer groups. The rise of artificial intelligence further exacerbates the problem.
Ananya Sharma* remembers discovering her pictures online. “It was just a normal photo that I had posted, but seeing it edited, sexualized and shared by strangers felt like a complete violation,” Sharma said.
India has witnessed several cases like the Bois locker room Case exposing how minors distributed altered images of girls without consent, normalizing objectification in peer groups. The rise of artificial intelligence further exacerbates the problem. The Video by Rashmika Mandanna Going Viral showed how easily realistic, explicit content can be generated without any intimate original material. The rapid progress of artificial intelligence has begun Deepfakes who use AI to create highly realistic images and videos in which a person’s face is transferred to another body to invent new scenarios. Indian actress Alia Bhatt was featured in a misleading deepfake video that was later confirmed to be false.
“Someone sent me a link and when I saw it, my face was visible on a video that wasn’t mine and was being shared in Telegram groups with more than 500 people. It was frightening to realize how easily it had spread and how strangers were consuming it as if it was real,” said Sharma.
Online gray areas
Such images are often distributed anonymously on platforms such as Reddit and Telegram, where distribution is fast and difficult to control. On Reddit, images are often posted to specific niche subreddits sexualized content and voyeuristic content. Many of these communities operate in “grey areas” and when reported, they are removed, only to re-emerge under a different name. The platform’s upvote system further promotes distribution and ensures that such content becomes more widely visible within minutes.
Telegram, another social media platform, presents the challenge of encrypted channels and large group capacities, making it a preferred venue for sharing non-consensual images. Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has been indicted in France [travel ban lifted as of 2025] for allegedly allowing criminal activity on the platform, including the distribution of child sexual abuse material, drug trafficking and fraud. In 2022, the Delhi High Court ordered Telegram Disclose user information the operator behind these channels. However, a government investigation into possible criminal abuse is still ongoing.
Legal limits in India
Unlike some other common law countries, Indian law does not have a specific, stand-alone offense for “revenge porn” or “non-consensual sharing of intimate images”. Courts in India instead rely mainly on Section 66E And Section 67 of the IT Act These include breaches of privacy and sections of the Criminal Code on defamation and obscenity, which are ill-suited to this particular harm.
Section 66E criminalizes taking or transmitting images from private areas without consent, but focuses on the body rather than the non-consensual distribution of intimate media in general. Section 67, on the other hand, treats any “obscene” online material as generic porn, making it difficult to distinguish between non-consensual, abusive distribution and consensually shared adult content.
Ali Ibrahim, a lawyer at the Delhi High Court, argues that the content of the law is not the main issue. “The rise in cyber complaints shows that awareness has increased and women are no longer afraid to file complaints. However, a rise in complaints usually never leads to a rise in convictions. Delays in prosecution are the norm and I believe that the tactics used by lawyers in court are one of the causes,” said Ibrahim.
More importantly, he goes on to explain that “the high threshold of evidence required in criminal prosecutions leads in most cases to the acquittal of perpetrators,” implying that in criminal law the burden of prosecution is extremely high and the guilt of the accused must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In cases involving cybercrime such as: In some cases, such as non-consensual image sharing/deepfakes, it can be difficult to collect clear and direct evidence.
Any discrepancies or lack of definitive evidence are enough for the court to give the defendant the benefit of the doubt. Even when violations have occurred and complaints have been filed, many cases fail to meet strict evidentiary standards, leading to acquittals and widening the gap between reporting and actual justice.
Cybersecurity by women
For victims, practical steps are just as important as the law. “In a panic, take screenshots before deleting anything. Get in touch with them as soon as possible National cybercrime reporting portal. When it comes to cyber crimes, providing evidence isn’t usually the hard part because almost everything can be found. However, as a precautionary measure, it is best to limit interactions on anonymous platforms such as Reddit and Telegram,” Ibrahim said.
Platforms like Reddit allow users to interact with and report content through communities like Facebook r/BanFemaleHateSubs and other similar subreddits that document and call for bans on women-hating spaces.
On platforms like Instagram and Facebook, features like restricting who can share, remix, or download user content, disabling story re-sharing, and restricting who can tag or mention you help increase mass distribution.
“Periodic reverse image search using tools like Google Lens or TinEye can help detect whether images are being reused elsewhere,” Ibrahim said. Experts particularly recommend keeping social media accounts private where possible, limiting the visibility of personal photos and using reverse image search tools to track abuse, but this is limited because keeping accounts secret does not mean it will avoid the harm.
Platforms like Reddit allow users to interact with and report content through communities like Facebook r/BanFemaleHateSubs and other similar subreddits that document and call for bans on women-hating spaces. “Reporting abusive subreddits and users, suspending accounts, and avoiding interaction with exploitative communities can help limit visibility and distribution,” Ibrahim said.
Cyber friendsa digital safety and awareness initiative, aims to help women address online risks, including non-consensual intimate image sharing, deepfakes and cyber-harassment, through workshops, helplines and educational toolkits that train women to identify abusive content and report abuse on platforms such as Reddit and Telegram.
Individual precautions can reduce risks, but they do not solve the larger problem. Content moderation, faster removal of abusive content and accountability must be introduced so that users are not left helpless to manage such risks themselves.
(*Name changed at person’s request)
Aditya Ansh is a freelance reporter based in New Delhi.