Man Finds His Own Sex Tape In Illegal Spy Cam Chat: Report

A Hong Kong man reportedly discovered that he and his girlfriend were unknowingly filmed having sex during their stay at a hotel in Shenzhen, southern China, weeks before finding the video in an explicit chat he regularly visits.

“What drew me in is the fact that the people don’t know they’re being filmed,” the Hong Kong man, who goes by Eric, told the BBC in a report published Thursday. “I think traditional porn feels very staged, very fake.”

The outlet found thousands of recent spy-cam videos like Eric’s, filmed in hotel rooms and sold as porn, on multiple sites, many advertised on messaging platform Telegram, which has garnered a poor reputation in recent years for spreading illicit and toxic content.

Eric, who told the outlet he has consumed this type of content since he was a teenager, said he no longer finds gratification in it after becoming a victim. His girlfriend, Emily, was also mortified upon finding out, and the two did not speak for weeks.

In China, pornography has long been illegal, and in December, the government cracked down on its enforcement even further by banning “obscene” content from being shared in private online messages. However, anger over voyeur cam messaging chats on Telegram that exploit women and girls has grown. While the app is banned in China, Telegram can be accessed through a virtual private network, or VPN.

The New York Times reports that footage of women and girls using public or school restrooms, or even at home, has spread to as many as 100,000 anonymous chat members all over China, but activists say government officials have censored discussion on the issue.

One Chinese-language Telegram chat, “MaskPark tree hole forum,” was exposed last year. It had 100,000 members and was taken down, but its traces left smaller sub-forums that are still active on the platform.

One spy cam trader, who goes by the alias AKA and spoke to the BBC, was estimated to make at least 163,200 Yuan ($22,000) last April. When the BBC confronted Telegram with the agent’s actions on its platform, it told the outlet, “sharing non-consensual pornography is explicitly forbidden by Telegram’s terms of service” and that the company “proactively moderates” and “accepts reports” of inappropriate content “in order to remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day.”

According to the BBC, Eric and Emily remain traumatized. Eric no longer goes into Telegram channels to watch porn, but said he still checks them occasionally in case the clip resurfaces.