Apart from the four who lodged reports, other pornographic photos and videos of women and children were also allegedly spread through these group chats.
Bukit Aman Sexual, Women, and Child Investigations assistant director Siti Kamsiah Hassan said investigations were under way and one-on-one interviews were currently being conducted with the four women.
They were accompanied by Nisha Sabanayagam and Mayna Patel from the All Women’s Action Society (Awam).
Speaking to FMT before entering the police headquarters, two of the women, both of whom wished to remain anonymous, said they decided to lodge the reports after discovering pictures of them in bikinis were being shared by one of the groups.
“We went to Port Dickson on Sept 26 and the next day, we found out (our pictures were in the group). They screenshot whatever we posted on our Instagram stories. We weren’t doing anything wrong,” said one of them.
She said she hoped action would be taken against members of the group chats, specifically the administrators, and those sharing child pornography.
Nisha, who is the programme and operations manager for Awam, urged the government to consider setting aside funds to tackle issues involving cybercrime, especially with the Budget 2021 next month.
She also called for Telegram to establish strong internal policies to prevent the spread of pornography and private data without consent, adding that the public must continue to lodge reports against online groups that share personal information.
“Banning Telegram is not going to be effective or sustainable because they will just come up with another platform. So, the suggestion would be to have good regulations to keep these platforms under control,” she said.
The most prominent of the group chats, dubbed “V2K”, had come to light when one woman realised that her photos were being sent to a group that had almost 40,000 members, garnering unsolicited sexual remarks.
She then raised the issue on social media, leading to more women discovering that their photos had been shared in the group and other Telegram group chats without their consent.
Previously, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission had said it had notified Telegram about the issue for their action.
It also said it was working closely with the police and had brought up the issue with Interpol for its assistance.