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.