Singapore—On the heels of the news that four men from a chat group on the messaging application Telegram have been arrested recently for sharing nude and upskirt photos of Singaporean girls and women, another Telegram group chat is in the limelight, allegedly for the same offense.
This time, the group’s name is ‘SharingIsCaring.’
According to news website AsiaOne, members of the group chat may share pictures of females taken in such public areas as the MRT.
An individual who uses the Telegram app had been recruited to join the group, which has over 100 members. He then shared screenshots from the group to AsiaOne, wherein around 800 videos and 500 pictures have been uploaded and shared.
Some of the photos are of mere children wearing their school uniforms, according to the report from AsiaOne.
Other photos contain pornographic material.
The netizen who shared the screenshots to AsiaOne, only known as ‘RC’, said he had been invited to join the group by a Telegram user known as Lust Wander, but became horrified when he realized that members were sharing not only pictures of women and girls, but also tips on how to become a “sniper,” which in their parlance is someone who captures such content for the purpose of sharing it online.
The report further says that the ‘SharingIsCaring’ is a sealed and secret channel on Telegram, which means that people cannot just join it or even easily find it on the platform, where the news outfit’s endeavours to join the group did not seem to be successful.
It further noted that Telegram, which was developed by a pair of Russian brothers, Nikolai Durov and Pavel Durov, but is registered in the United States and the United Kingdom, offers an encrypted “Secret Chat” function that ensures that messages are secure, and these messages can be deleted easily or be scheduled to ‘self-destruct’ at a certain time.
Police acknowledged that they are aware of ‘SharingIsCaring’ and have begun to look into the group.
The Police announced on October 15 that four men were arrested due to their suspected involvement in the circulation of obscene material via the chat group on the Telegram called SG Nasi Lemak.
The youngest of the individuals arrested is only 17 years old. Another one of the men arrested is also a teenager, age 19.
As early as March of this year, the police had already begun to receive reports against SG Nasi Lemak for allegedly sharing pornographic material through Telegram.
Police officers from Ang Mo Kio Police Division determined the identities of the men arrested via investigations they carried out over the past few months. These men were arrested on October 14, Monday, in different parts of the country, and appeared in court via video link the following day, where the charges were brought against them.
Charged in court were 17-year-old Abdillah Sabaruddin; 19-year-old Justin Lee Han Shi; 26-year-old Leonard Teo Min Xuan, and 37-year-old Liong Tianwei, 37.
The investigations of the police have shown that Leonard Teo Min Xuan and Liong Tianwei are the administrators of the Telegram group, while the two teenage men are distributors of the obscene material. Police officers have seized over 10 electronic devices, including a central processing unit, a laptop, a hard disk, and several mobile phones, as case exhibits.
The four men were charged with conspiracy to commit distribution of obscene materials, under Section 292(a) read with Section 109 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.
They have each been charged with one count of transmitting obscene materials by electronic means. Messrs Lee, Teo, and Liong have been accused of committing the offence between January and October 2019. And on October 5, Mr Abdillah was said to have shared an explicit picture of two naked women.
If they are found guilty, the men may receive a jail sentence of up to three months, be fined, or both.
By Friday, October 18, the two teenage men were handed an additional charge in court. Messrs Abdillah and Lee were given an additional charge of having obscene materials on their electronic devices such as mobile phones, although documents from the court did not disclose what these materials were.
They were accused of committing the offenses earlier in October. / TISG
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