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Summary
A Chinese Telegram group, “MaskPark Treehole Forum,” with about 314,924 male members, is engaging in the illegal trade of women’s private photos and videos. The men are secretly filming their female family members, colleagues, friends, and strangers while selling on social media platforms. Chinese women are seeking global and international interventions, including an outlaw of unauthorised secret photography materials.
Thousands of Chinese men are sharing intimate photos and videos of women without their consent via Telegram, a messaging app banned in China but still accessible through VPNs. The “MaskPark Treehole Forum,” a large Telegram group, hosted and circulated obscene and voyeuristic recordings of women and girls, many taken with hidden cameras in both public and private spaces.
It comes after a Chinese university recently expelled a female student for “damaging national dignity,” following videos posted on Telegram by a Ukrainian esports player. In a separate case, a woman learned through an anonymous tip-off in May that photos of her, taken without her consent, had been uploaded to the Telegram group. Due to the forum’s privacy settings, which allowed messages to self-delete and blocked saving or screenshots, she could not retrieve the images.
Chinese Men Utilise the MaskPark to Violate Women for their Perverted Needs
Before the forum was private, the MaskPark group had amassed about 314,924 Chinese and overseas male members. The content shared in the groups included footage secretly recorded in fitting rooms, university dormitories, public transportation, and even inside the victims’ homes.
“We found group chats selling small, hidden cameras, and these cameras are hidden in hotel rooms, public bathrooms, locker rooms, home supplies such as shampoo bottles and tissue boxes, almost everywhere you can think of that could possibly have a hidden camera,” one Chinese woman, Grace, told NFM.
In some instances, the men who filmed and distributed the footage were people known to the victims, such as classmates, coworkers, or even family members. They film their wives, daughters, mothers, female colleagues and friends to gain acceptance in the group. They use hidden cameras disguised as everyday objects such as power outlets, screws, or cleaning bottles, making them difficult to detect.
One of the Maskpark groups, called MASKPARK adult tree hole, is an anonymous tree hole, where members are to be their “truself” and share their thoughts and feelings about “slutty wives and good families, adult sex skills, cuckold affairs, hookups, contrast girlfriends, ambiguous colleagues, private massage and spa experiences in brothels.”
Members are encouraged to release their inner desires, express their true thoughts, “break through adult privacy,” and speak freely about real life experiences. Themes for the group include “Rape” and “Bitch.”
Digital Sexual Abuse Turned into an Underground Industry Powered Through Telegram
The Telegram group was further organised into at least 20 sub-channels based on specific themes such as “female classmates and colleagues,” “brides in wedding dresses,” and “lingerie.” The male users not only shared content but also sold these intimate recordings, effectively turning digital sexual abuse into a profitable underground industry.
Fathers, brothers, husbands and boyfriends sell porn videos and pictures in the group and even target babies. Pinhole cameras were also openly advertised and sold within the forum. Although the main forum was eventually shut down, several related groups remain active and continue trading in footage and surveillance equipment.
“We have done a lot of work,” Grace said, sharing the interventions Chinese women have attempted to make to shut down operations. “We have tried reporting them to the police, seeking help from local women’s protection associations, making calls to the Chinese Women’s Protection Association, and expressing our concerns on Chinese TikTok, Rednote and many social media platforms, but everything we have done to defend our rights is in vain.”
Call for Local and Global Interventions
The women now call for international and local interventions, asking for human rights groups to raise awareness.
“Issue a strong public statement condemning the ‘Maskpark’ incident and the underlying culture that enables such exploitation,” Christi, another Chinese woman, told NFM on how global groups can intervene. “Support initiatives aimed at strengthening digital rights and privacy protections for women globally, particularly in the face of evolving technologies that facilitate such abuses.”
The women further called for the Chinese government to implement safeguarding policies such as mandatory real-name purchase and sales for pinhole and camouflage cameras, and for all e-commerce platforms and offline stores selling such devices to conduct real-name verifications and keep records.
They further shared that there must be legal boundaries for the installation of such equipment by individuals or organisations, and such legal restrictions must be legally defined. Further, the sale or use of unauthorised secret photography materials should be outlawed.
Among other interventions, including severe punishments for perpetrators, the government must also engage in sensitisation programmes. They should encourage the public security agencies and market supervision departments to monitor perpetrators and prosecute them with the corresponding agencies.
