Legal Gaps Impede Justice For Chinese Victims Of Online Abuse
Bangkok, China: In China, online sexual abuse victims are finding it difficult to pursue justice due to gaps in the law. Recently, a Telegram channel called MaskPark, which offered pornographic content in Chinese caught national attention.
With hundreds of thousands of subscribers, the channel carried revenge porn, hidden-camera videos and other non-consensual content of Chinese women. Although the online group was quickly shut down by Telegram, according to public activists, alternative channels have already sprung up, with with only a few being shut down.
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The activists are figuring out ways to help women whose images have been posted on Telegram. They are demanding for the intervention of police in this regard, and a specific law to address non-consensual sexual online content, which they consider as a form of sexual abuse.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Public Security and the State Council Information Office in China have not responded so far to the media or activists in this matter.
According to a report from Southern Metropolis Daily, a state-backed news outlet, the only woman who has come forward about the online group. She was informed through a private message that the photos and videos of her were on the channel and came across images that she became intimate with a Canadian citizen who was her boyfriend at the time.
When the woman informed the case to the police, images had been deleted. Even though she consulted with the lawyers it has been found that there is no law in China to address what had happened. Also, to lodge even a civil case, information regarding alleged perpertrators is needed.
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Since Telegram is blocked in China, it operates outside the scope of the government’s official censorship construc
Activists are pushing for a new law to handle cases involving online groups like “MaskPark,” arguing that the current charge of disseminating obscene materials is too vague.
