Sono sotto attaccoReport

What is happening to you?

I am being shamed online

Online shaming is a channel, a group or a profile created to expose a person: photos, videos, insults and accusations, often extremely serious, repeated until they spread. The aim is to isolate you and destroy your credibility. It is also called a smear campaign or a defamation campaign. What they write does not become true because many people repeat it.

How to recognise it

  • There is a group or channel with your name, your photo or a reference to you.
  • Friends, colleagues or relatives forward you screenshots or links about you.
  • The accusations are the most serious possible, often about sexual offences or offences against minors, with no evidence at all.
  • The same accounts also target other people with the same pattern.

What to do

  1. Save everything before it disappears: the link to the channel, screenshots with the date and time and, on Telegram Desktop, the chat export in JSON format, which contains the numeric ID of the accounts.
  2. Report the channel and the messages to the platform. On Telegram use the Report button and write to abuse@telegram.org with the links.
  3. File a complaint for defamation: in Italy you generally have 3 months from when you find out; in Switzerland defamation is prosecuted on complaint. You can file a complaint even if you do not know who is behind it.
  4. Let the people close to you know with a short, calm message: you are the target of a defamation campaign and you have filed a complaint.

What to avoid

  • Do not join the group to defend yourself and do not respond to provocations.
  • Do not publish the name of anyone you think is behind it: it could be another victim.

Other situations

  1. 02My personal data has been leakedAddress, phone number, family members or documents published to expose you (doxxing).
  2. 03I or my family are being threatenedMessages or calls with threats of violence, including against your relatives.
  3. 04Intimate images are being shared or threatened to be sharedIntimate photos or videos, real or fake, attributed to you.
  4. 05Someone is using my nameFake profiles in your name, or your name used to accuse others.
  5. 06My website, my accounts or my phone are under attackThreats to take the site down, stolen accounts, a phone being spied on.
Leave now