Italy Facebook group scandal: An Italian Facebook group called Mia Moglie (My Wife) has sparked national outrage after it was discovered spreading intimate images of women without their consent or knowledge. The group, which counted over 32,000 people among its users, was removed by Meta earlier this week for "breaking our Adult Sexual Exploitation policies," the company confirmed.

Based on Financial Times reports, the group was initially formed in 2019 but became inactive for most of the period until May 2025. Recently, however, the group exploded with explicit content in the form of men posting intimate photos of their wives or girlfriends, sometimes snapped without their knowledge. In a few cases, even doctored images pretending to be women were posted. Screenshots analyzed by Italian media included shocking comments on the posts, with users explicitly making violent sexual comments. Several voiced intentions to rape, and some complimented the secrecy surrounding some photographs. Writer and activist Carolina Capria, who first brought the group to public attention on Instagram, characterized the phenomenon as a "virtual gangrape" and stated to local media that she felt "nauseous and frightened" upon discovering the content.

Legal Implications and Police Complaints

Italy's Postal Police verified that they had received almost 2,800 complaints, several of them coming directly from the women who had their photos posted in the group. Deputy director Barbara Strappato described the number of complaints as "unprecedented," adding that no woman had authorized her images to be published. Lawyer Marisa Marraffino, who specializes in cyber crime law, cautioned that group members risked serious charges under Italian law, including illegal distribution of intimate images (revenge porn), aggravated defamation, invasion of privacy, and in some cases, child pornography. Sentences could see them jailed for up to six years.

Italy criminalised revenge porn in 2019 with a maximum prison sentence of six years. The victims have six months to file charges. In this case, it could become a "maxi trial" against up to thousands of perpetrators. The scandal has whipped up controversy on gender violence and cyber misogyny in Italy. Opposition forces have criticised the right-wing government under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for failing to act sufficiently against digital violence.

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Meta Under Fire For Content Moderation

The scandal has fueled criticism of Meta's content moderation policies, particularly after the company reportedly eased some of its rules this year to appease the Trump administration in the US. Although Meta asserts it moved quickly to delete the Mia Moglie group, critics say the fact that it was operational for three months indicates serious enforcement loopholes. "We do not enable content that threatens or encourages sexual violence, sexual assault or sexual exploitation on our platforms," a Meta spokesperson responded in a statement. Activists, however, believe company assurances will not do and are demanding stronger international regulation to keep such exploitative groups from forming elsewhere.

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The case is part of a wider culture of digital misogyny in which online environments perpetuate gender violence in the physical world. Bianca Bellucci, a prominent activist, referred to the group as "the n-th expression of a patriarchal society treating women as objects to own and trade." As public indignation grows, specialists point out that the case might become a turning point in the Italian battle against online harassment, having the potential to introduce more stringent laws, enforcement, and collaboration among digital platforms and law enforcement agencies.