Increasing irateness is being observed on Chinese social media following news stories disclosing the presence of online groups, which allegedly involve hundreds of thousands of Chinese men and share photographs of women, including sexually explicit ones, without their permission.
The Southern Metropolis Daily, a Chinese newspaper, recently reported on a group named “MaskPark tree hole forum” on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, claiming it had over 100,000 members, all of whom are reportedly Chinese men.
Reports have indicated that men within the group share sexually explicit images of women, either in intimate situations or obtained through so-called “pinhole cameras,” which can be concealed in everyday items such as plug sockets and shoes.
This scandal has been likened to South Korea’s “Nth Room” case, where women were pressured into sharing explicit photographs of themselves with members of a Telegram group.
Although Telegram is restricted in China, it can be accessed using a virtual private network (VPN), which bypasses location restrictions.
The hashtags linked to the controversy have accumulated more than 11 million views on social media platform Weibo. However, signs of censorship are evident, as some related searches display the message: “According to relevant laws and policies, this content cannot be displayed.”
One user on Xiaohongshu, an Instagram-like platform also known as RedNote, expressed, “A woman’s life is not a man’s erotic novel.” Another user on Xiaohongshu, predominantly used by women, stated, “Extremely frightening! After witnessing this, I’ve decided if the MaskPark incident isn’t addressed, I won’t ever get married or have children.”
In the South Korean case involving similar violations, the chat group’s mastermind was sentenced to 40 years in prison. The penalty for taking pictures without consent in China is a maximum of 10 days’ detention and a fine of 500 yuan (£53). People who disseminate pornographic material can be sentenced to up to two years in prison.
The MaskPark scandal is not the first instance of men secretly filming women. Last year, the boss of a tech company in Beijing was found to have secretly recorded over 10,000 videos of his female employees using the restroom and was subsequently detained for 10 days. According to one Weibo user, “Ten days is nothing short of encouragement.”
Lao Dongyan, a criminal law professor at Tsinghua University, pointed out that Chinese law views the dissemination of secretly filmed material as an obscenity offense rather than a violation of women’s rights. This approach fails to recognize the women who were secretly filmed as the primary victims.
While voicing opinions on feminism and women’s rights has become challenging in China due to the government crackdown on civil society and activism, some women have found ways to address misogyny in public through humor. Comedian Huang Yijin, on a recent episode of a popular standup comedy show, The King of Standup Comedy, joked about wearing makeup even when alone in hotel rooms, suggesting the assumption of hidden cameras.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/31/anger-china-reports-online-groups-sharing-explicit-photos-women-telegram-without-consent
