Hidden away from the public eye on Telegram is a thriving market for stolen content. Here, in private groups accessible only through secretive invitations or links from influencers, a dark trade of stolen nudes is booming. FIJ’s Emmanuel Uti infiltrated some of these groups to report this new form of exploitation supported by Telegram by exposing the men at the forefront of this disturbing trend.

The unceasing notifications on my phone from a group largely filled with men signalled that the group was on fire – another one had been shared. It was not the first, and it wouldn’t be the last. The images shared that day, and some others in the days that followed were of poor visual quality because they were stolen glimpses – a gross violation of privacy happening in real time. As the men continued to chat, it was clear that they could spend hours online discussing nude images of women with large followings on X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram.

While several messages buzzed about the “freshly dropped pictures,” other members posted screenshots of women’s Instagram accounts with captions like “Anything on her?”, “Who has her nudes, please?” or “Anything on this girl?”, hoping someone in the group would have the requested images and “drop” them to feed their insatiable eyes.

The group functioned like a marketplace. Apart from the members buying and selling nudes, everyone expressed their concerns and frustrations, regardless of whether they received a response. For instance, after viewing an image of a woman selling erotic content on Snapchat, one person remarked, “Why would I pay N20,000 for this type of content?” Another might vent about a sex worker who took their money but failed to show up at the venue of their sexual combat.

ENTERING THE HIDDEN WORLD

In April, an X (formerly Twitter) user quoted a tweet in response to another user, saying in Yoruba that he was grateful for the existence of “Naija Baddies” on Telegram. The X user implied that the group was his source of sexual gratification. Upon stumbling on the tweet, this reporter searched “Naija Baddies group” on the X search bar and found numerous testimonials about the group’s extensive database of nude content. But I soon discovered that Telegram had taken the original group down. The one referenced by the X user was a re-emerging “Naija Baddies” group.

I then used the Telegram search bar to search “Naija Baddies”. At the time, nine groups had “Naija Baddies” in their names. Upon joining all the Telegram groups, one is immediately struck by the sheer volume of nude content on the platforms and the coordinated syndicate of similar groups linked to these groups. After searching, I concluded that “Naija Baddies” must be so successful that every group named itself after it.

Upon careful examination, two groups stood out. The first had over 5,000 nudes, though these were mostly random online pictures. The link to this group was obtained from one of the smaller Naija Baddies groups. This group was managed by Ezugha Chigozie Victor, also known as Matigel, who charged N8,000 for access to his premium group of women’s nudes. It has over 250,000 members. The second group was essentially a marketplace for nude content obtained without the consent of the victims.

This second group, like many others, is called “NaijaBaddies”. Within this group is a link to the notorious and private “NaijaBaddies (Sin City)” group. This exclusive group is not accessible to the general public and does not appear in the Telegram search bar. Access is granted only through the “NaijaBaddies” group. Noticing the message, “I did not ban anybody from SinCity. I think Telegram deleted,” I realised the Sin City I joined was a re-emerging version. This new Sin City was created in October 2023 and had amassed over 14,000 pieces of nude content by May 31.

On Sin City, one can view nude images of women almost for free. Whether the women are nude content creators or not, the thrill of sharing and viewing these images has turned the platform into a vast repository of nudes.

A young woman, a frequent nude content creator on SnapChat whose viewers have to pay a subscription fee to view her content, recently made a desperate plea to her subscribers: “Please do not share my nudes on Sin City.” Her plea fell on deaf ears. One of her paid subscribers took a shot of her warning post and shared it on Sin City for others to see. 

INSIDE THE GROUPS

Infiltrating these groups to uncover the extent of illegal activities, I observed a disturbing trend of actions that several Nigerian laws have criminalised. I also observed that most members of this group involve themselves in some shameful acts, on the premise that every member of this group is like one another.

On Naija Baddies Sin City, men openly exchange nudes of prostitutes they have slept with and, in some cases, even unsuspecting partners, although with their faces blurred out. Sometimes, posts like these are accompanied by captions indicating that the person in the shared image has been “used”. In the event that someone posts a picture of a lady that one of them has known in biblical terms, they also say it. The act isn’t limited to Nigerian women; images of international victims are also in circulation. In fact, in April, a user posted the image of a morbidly obese white woman, explaining that they were managing the woman in the absence of their sexual preferences and the scarcity of women who would sleep with them.

Another frequent act in this group is the sharing of the premium content of Nigerian nude creators for everyone to see. Women who sell their private videos to paid viewers on SnapChat would be in for a rude shock when they learn their videos are being circulated in groups like Naija Baddies. Using a second phone, some men record the paid, view-once content and redistribute it in these underground groups, effectively turning the private businesses of these women into public exploitation. It does not end there. When some of the men somehow find the Instagram accounts of the women, they barge into these women’s inboxes to ask for all sorts of things. This sends a message to the creators, who then become stricter with what they do on social media. Some men in the group know other members do this, so they post snippets of nude images of popular female TikTok and Instagram users, usually to prove they have their nudes. One of the men, for instance, remarked that “if to say una dey mature, I for post her nude”, while dropping a snippet of a nude image of one of the victims this reporter spoke to.

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The Naija Baddies group is not free from scammers. Usually men, these scammers post semi-nude images of women, most likely obtained from local hookup groups, in the groups as an invitation to desperate men who want to exchange their money for sex. Because Telegram has the option of a user making their number private, this type of scam is usually successful. After many of these men have been fleeced, they rant to the group and post every piece of information they have about the scammer.

While observing activities on Naija Baddies and other similar groups, I found that the end goal of the creators of such groups is money-making, while many members of the group are there to satisfy their primal urges or to contribute to the many contents. In one group, an admin offers access to a premium group for a fee. Promises of exclusive content and direct interactions with the women – unbeknownst to the women – entice the members. On Naija Baddies, there is a regular advertiser of a premium group with child pornography and other erotic content. The Naija Baddies admin has a premium group. In May, his premium group advertisement was “Dianee Full album available in Premium for N4,500 only.” Intrigued by this – and given the “success” of the Naija Baddies Sin City group – this reporter joined the premium group.

PREMIUM GROUP LIKE OIL MONEY

As of 1 June, the premium group had 300 subscribers with more than 500 ‘premium content’ items. This means the admin of the group made over a million in May alone at the expense of the creators of the nude content. The group has an RSVP page one can only access after joining the premium group. Noticeable in the RSVP group are screenshots of the Instagram or TikTok profiles of the women whose nude content is posted on the platform. By June 3, Osinachi Precious Casmir, the Naija Baddies admin, had begun to announce to the May premium members a N3,000 price for June premium content.

A clear difference between the premium group and Naija Baddies Sin City is in the videos of known creators. In the premium group, the videos are longer and there are many videos of the same person. However, among the many videos of the Nigerian nude content creators, one thing stood out – the videos were recorded either from the creators’ All Access Fans page or with another phone while the recorder, who appears to be the admin, was viewing the premium content they paid for. This means the recorder of these content items is making money off the content creators while regaining the money spent to subscribe to these creators on SnapChat and platforms like All Access Fans.

The illegality in this act, as perpetuated by the admin of such groups, is manifold. First, they go out of their way to obtain videos with a third-party downloader, which are unavailable on the PlayStore and App Store, or record with another phone. Then they violate several laws by sharing this content while ripping the owners off. The effect of the non-consensual distribution of this content leads to many consequences, usually on the part of the creators.

SHARING OTHERS’ NUDE IS ILLEGAL

The activities going on in Naija Baddies and other related groups breach multiple Nigerian laws, including those related to privacy, cybercrime and the unauthorised distribution of intimate images. For example, Section 24(1) of the Cybercrime Act, 2015 reads “A person who knowingly or intentionally sends a message or other matter by means of computer systems or network that is grossly offensive, pornographic or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character or causes any such message or matter to be sent, or he knows to be false, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, ill will or needless anxiety to another or causes such a message to be sent, commits an offence under this Act and is liable on conviction to a fine of not more than N7, 000, 000.00 or imprisonment for a term, not more than 3 years or both.”

Similarly, Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution provides that “the privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations, and telegraphic communications is hereby guaranteed and protected.” While not explicitly addressing the sharing of nudes, this section guarantees the right to private and family life. Violating someone’s privacy by sharing explicit images without consent is a breach of this constitutional right. 

“In situations like this, people sharing nudes can be prosecuted. Legal action can be instituted against them. There is sufficient evidence that they are guilty of the crime,” Mosunmola Adefarati said.

VOICES OF THE VICTIMS

It was not hard to find some of the women affected because screenshots of their social media profiles were posted alongside their images on Naija Baddies. This reporter contacted two women whose Instagram profiles are in the Naija Baddies group. Reaching out to the first lady, who is neither a sex worker nor a nude content creator, this reporter heard stories of betrayal and violation. “I honestly do not know how this happened because I do not send anything to random people,” she told FIJ.

She told FIJ that when she heard that nude photos of her were in circulation in private groups on Telegram, she panicked because she did not know what to do. “So, I took down all of my social media accounts because I was terrified,” she said, adding that she does not consent to her images being shared in the group.

The second lady this reporter reached out to is a nude content creator who sells images of herself to people on a private app. One of her customers posted chats of himself with her and videos of her in the group and then deleted them after some time. But the five minutes had already given her away. When this reporter contacted her, she was offended and would not say much. “Stupid hypocrite,” she said in anger. But despite the anonymity of the ladies FIJ contacted, their pain is palpable, and their demand for justice is clear.

This story was produced with support from the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) under the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development Inclusivity and Accountability project (CMEDIA) funded by the MacArthur Foundation