Introduction
In 2020, Korean netizens called “Nth room” the most dehumanizing case of the 21st century. Several juveniles have been identified among the “Nth room” investigation victims, which began in 2018 and involved numerous suspects using women as objects of sexual enslavement after threatening them. The alleged crime film was shared in chat rooms and charged to subscribers, with up to 260,000 people being exposed (‘Nth room’: A digital prison of sexual slavery,” 2022). Operators steal women’s personal information by sending phishing links, posing as police officers and offering paid part-time jobs, and then coerce them into providing sexually exploitative photos and videos over a long period.
“Room N” is the collective name for several chat groups on the communication software Telegram, where women are coerced into taking obscene videos and pictures. Pavel Durov and Nikolai Durov, co-founders of Russia’s largest social networking site VKontakte, founded Telegram in 2013. Telegram’s daily downloads peaked at around 2 million in 2014; it crossed 100 million monthly active users in February 2016, and it announced in March 2018 that it had achieved 200 million monthly active users. Telegram has surpassed all expectations because of its unique and appealing security characteristics (Mamaghani & SADEGHI & NIKNAFS, 2019).
Telegram was founded in 2013 by Pavel and Nikolay Durov, two of the founders of VKontakte, Russia’s largest social networking site. After its inception, Telegraph attracted many adolescent users. In 2014, the daily download volume of Telegram increased from 300,000 to 400,000, with the most significant daily download volume surpassing 2 million (Mamaghani & SADEGHI & NIKNAFS, 2019). In February 2016, Telegraph announced that its monthly active users had reached 100 million; in March 2018, the company announced that its monthly active users had surpassed 200 million (Mamaghani & SADEGHI & NIKNAFS, 2019). Telegram’s security is the key to its success on many social software platforms, thanks to its function of burning after reading and deleting sent messages at a predefined period, allowing users to delete their chat logs and retain acceptable privacy. Therefore, criminals have chosen Telegram as a platform and gradually become a place of cyber-violence. While other communications require the public identity of the software, Telegram’s anonymized presence makes it more inaccessible for police to make arrests.
This article aims to discuss how modern slavery is achieved through digital crime. The report is analyzed in three parts. First, what are the advantages of choosing Telegram from the perspective of the perpetrators? Secondly, how cybercrime manipulates them for the perpetrators. Finally, for society, where sexual violence exists anywhere, can the condoned rape culture be changed in the future?
https://www.koreastardaily.com/sc/news/12531
Criminals choose Telegram
Choosing Telegram as a place to commit crimes for criminals is essential. Some miscreants are bold, and Nth room has existed undetected for years due to Telegram’s unprecedented security characteristics of freedom, user anonymity, read-and-burn, and end-to-end encryption (Mamaghani & SADEGHI & NIKNAFS, 2019). These can hide the identity of the perpetrators well and keep everyone confidential, allowing the audience to focus on what is posted rather than identifying the perpetrators themselves.
South Korean officials have been keeping tabs on pornographic document portals in past years as part of a global push to combat the child pornography industry. But at the same time, police said they quickly realized a large portion of the illegal sex trade was being diverted to chat groups on Telegram. Telegram is popular among People in Korea since many individuals accept the encrypted chat service safeguards their right to freedom of speech. According to a developing police probe, such apps also became vital instruments in the porn industry.
Telegram has become a paradise for criminals because it provides a timing setting of “burn after reading.” To be precise, the message will disappear automatically after a specific time. This encryption method ensures that your chat messages will never be an interception or cracked by a third party. Not only that, but the files also uploaded in the Nth room do not need to go through Telegram’s server at all. These functions make all crimes impossible to check, and there is no limit to the number of people in the Telegram chat room.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/what-telegram/
Everyone enters the chat room anonymously, so it is difficult for the police to find out the source (Mamaghani & SADEGHI & NIKNAFS, 2019). Police detained a chat room operator known as “Watchman” in September 2021. In October, police arrested 66 people who took part in the operation of additional online chat rooms. Investigators believe the owner of Room N was incredibly crafty in his lucrative business, luring customers in with “preview” material in Telegram chat groups and then asking them to pay more when they demanded more violent or filthy movies. The least obscene films were placed in public groups by the creators. If viewers like to see more, they may pay with virtual money that police cannot hack directly to the origin, and then they’re asked to visit Room 1, Room 2, and so on, luring them to go on to more exciting sexual exploitation video (Jun, 2021).
Today, the ability to identify and supervise risks in platform operations needs to be strengthened. The focus of supervision should not only be on content but should also focus on the platform’s business model, operating philosophy, user complaints, and resources invested in security. These aspects will affect the flow of information across the platform (Moore & Tambini, 2021). As the forum founder, he knows that Telegram’s features are security capabilities and focus on privacy. The company should have realized that someone would use it to commit crimes at the earliest stage of the platform’s operation, but Telegram has not improved and allowed more crime to breed. This is the platform’s negligence, using dangerous and harmful behaviors as a selling point to attract criminals. This selling point ignores content supervision at the cost of infringing the rights and responsibilities of ordinary netizens. Telegram lacks operational capabilities to identify and police risks, thus providing a haven for cyber-crime.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/what-telegram/
Victims are manipulated by cyber-crime
For victims, how did cybercrime manipulate them? Violating the victim’s right to informed consent, why did the victim dare not report the crime? According to police, the creator of Nth room enticed female victims with fraudulent employment offers on the internet, then attracted them into shooting graphic sex videotapes for a significant quantity of money. He threatened to make the tape public online or to friends and relatives unless they continued to give increasingly genocidal and even violent content (Jun, 2021).
If war slaughtered an individual’s body, then the sexual assault of the incident in Nth room was like a live broadcast of a plan to kill souls. After the tragedy in Nth room, survivors find it impossible to return to their previous lifestyles. “At the same time, there was orientation and prejudice towards women,” the crooks in Nth room “abused the victim’s data and shared it with third parties (260,000 users)”(Goggin, 2017). Because the initial suspects pretended to provide assisted dating jobs, attracting young women with poor financial conditions and no social support network was relatively easy. In addition, the conservative atmosphere of Korean society makes them afraid to ask for help once they are sexually assaulted and harmed.
According to local media, the word “slave” was allegedly etched on the victims’ bodies in the recordings. Journalists contacted B, one of the survivors, after police apprehended the offenders. B had persistent self-harm and suicidal thoughts following the events in Nth room. She was afraid they would come for her once the offenders were released from jail and reintegrated into society. With all her personal information out, survivors need to locate a secure location to dwell as soon as possible to escape physical danger. She has no option but to remain at friends’ residences or cheap student dorms like the Examination House because she doesn’t have a consistent salary and can’t afford rent (‘Nth room’: A digital prison of sexual slavery”, 2022).
Many media reports and online comments still focus on the details of personal encounters and curiously depict them. But for the victims, the way society treats them is “like being choked by another owner of the Nth room.”
https://www.itproportal.com/features/what-is-behind-the-decline-in-cyber-crime-victim-rates/
Society condones rape culture
To the whole society – Is there a chance to change the condoned rape culture? Suppose these survivors are forced to live with their sexually attacked recordings for the rest of their lives. In that case, they will be uploaded and shared by anonymous people and even exploited as money-making entertainment goods. How will they be able to continue to live?
https://medium.com/the-pink/rape-culture-all-the-small-things-3f70d93f8cd0
As a society, our job is not just to eradicate films but also to figure out how to counsel these people from a feminist viewpoint. When sexual assault recordings become a public problem, survivors have no support system at first, said Lee Hyo-rim, a Korean non-governmental organization Cyber Sexual Violence Response Centre member.
According to the BBC, the group first assisted in discovering, reporting, and deletion the films, but Lee quickly realized that these were not the most efficient methods. “We have to be tough with survivors and tell them, ‘It’s not your fault,’Lee added. When society cannot wipe the films, the victims’ lifetime dilemma, and the source of their rehabilitation, is their release from guilt (Jun 2021). In addition, to prevent the incident in Nth room from being replicated in other countries, it is also necessary to re-examine the “culture of rape” that society has tolerated for a long time. The so-called rape culture does not simply mean that people sexually assault others but also includes the tacit consent that sexual violence occurs. Victims must review their social atmosphere: condoning people’s sexual assault on drunk women or joining candid camera groups.
The digital crime in Nth room is the only demon in this incident. First, social media platforms require a systemic approach to regulation. Telegram is a toxic technology culture, as a technology that seems to protect user privacy highly. It is unique because offenders can use socio-technical platforms as a conduit for coordination and harassment. And there doesn’t seem to be a leader here and no showing of loving qualities. Members of these networks frequently demonstrate technical prowess while engaging in ethically questionable activities, such as acquiring public and personal information about the objects of their actions. They take advantage of platform policies that focus on attracting enormous viewers with minimal protection for potential harassment victims (Massanari, 2017).
These findings corroborate my view that a toxic tech culture provides a breeding ground for a misogynistic culture. Despite the brutal crimes committed by the creators, the fact that Korean men are familiar with the culture of sexual exploitation from an early age and grew up with no one to stop makes the crime possible.
https://popbee.com/features/korea-telegram-nth-room-sexual-assault-harassment-exploitation-case-remind-us-spectators-shameful/
Conclusion
In summary, criminals choose Telegram because of the platform’s lack of oversight and regulation. In the domains of digital rights, the founder of Nth room abused personal data and shared data with third parties. He also objectified women, discriminated against women, and sold different female sexual assault videos to other male targets. As a result of the platform’s carelessness and the objectification and mistreatment of women in a male-dominated culture, tragedy has occurred. Men enjoy special rights in many nations, not just in South Korea.
They criticize women online and say some hate speech about women. Platform supervision is essential, but it is more important to change people’s stereotypes about women. Women who have been sexually assaulted can speak out bravely instead of being afraid of facing more online severe violence and harassment after speaking out. If the regulation of the platform improves and the status and power of women increase, such large-scale sexual assault incidents will not occur in the future.
Reference
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Goggin, G. (2017). Disability and haptic mobile media. New Media & Society, 19(10), 1563–1580. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817717512
Jun, W. (2021). A Study on Characteristics Analysis and Countermeasures of Digital Sex Crimes in Korea. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(1), 12. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010012
Mamaghani Nasab, A., & SADEGHI, A., & NIKNAFS, A. (2019). Investigating the role of Telegram in the formation of youth social deviations. QUARTERLY OF ORDER AND SECURITY GUARDS, 12(3 (47) ), 49-72. https://www.sid.ir/en/journal/ViewPaper.aspx?id=755887
Massanari, A. (2017). #Gamergate and The Fappening: How Reddit’s algorithm, governance, and culture support toxic technocultures. New Media & Society, 19(3), 329–346. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444815608807
Moore, M., & Tambini, D. (Eds.) (2021). Regulating Big Tech: Policy Responses to Digital Dominance: Oxford University Press. https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780197616093.001.0001/oso-9780197616093.
‘Nth room’: A digital prison of sexual slavery. (2022). Retrieved 16 March 2022, from https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2020/03/29/features/DEBRIEFING-Nth-room-A-digital-prison-of-sexual-slavery/3075441.html