“I figured out how horrific that website is. Having simply taken part in what is now a very common aspect of 21st century sexuality and relationships, Jack found himself victim to sexual abuse, exploitation and humiliation on MaleGeneral. It seems images shared during a brief sexual encounter between two consenting adults on Grindr were now being used against him. I kept quiet because I didn’t exactly want people seeing that of me…” I just closed it down as fast as I could, and when I got home I looked into it more and I figured out how horrific that website is. I thought it was just some fake junk mail circulating but for some reason I clicked on it and there it was. “It said something along the lines of ‘Hey, have you seen these photos of you naked on this website?’ and it included a link. “Last year, I received a DM on Twitter from someone I didn’t know,” he said. A thread was posted asking for his nudes to be brought to light, and the original recipient from Grindr anonymously distributed them - all completely against his will. Having previously exchanged nude photos as part of an intimate, one-on-one experience on Grindr, Jack was shocked to learn these had later been distributed to millions of users on MaleGeneral. Jack, whose name has been changed for confidentiality purposes, is one of the many men who’ve had such material shared on MaleGeneral without his consent. The page accepts donations in Bitcoin and Litecoin. A link-out page details some of the removal requests by people affected, referring to anyone who goes directly to the internet service provider as “turds”. Some have modest followings on Instagram or Twitter, others are unknowns that individual users wish to pursue naked images of.
The site is made up of multiple threads where users can ask or search for specific nudes – many have personal information attached and detailed, like their social media accounts or full names. And while a great deal of content shared here often concerns material made by guys who are willingly selling porn through other sites (like subscription site OnlyFans), many are just regular people finding themselves victim to revenge porn, sexual exploitation and explicit material shared with malicious intent.
Just think Is Anyone Up? (the user-generated, now defunct revenge porn site from 2012), but for men who like men. This can come in the form of dick-pics which were originally shared in a private setting, or even wetransfer links to downloadable videos. With a design that’s reminiscent of 4chan, it’s an online forum which invites users to post photos identifying any male they know (on or offline), with the purpose of asking other users to share explicit images and/or videos of the male in question. MaleGeneral (100 per cent NSFW) is the perfect example of how far this has come. With the rise of online dating, hook-up apps and even the on-demand ‘boyfriend experience’, it seems a person’s entire spectrum of sexual desire can be satiated simply by using the internet. So it should have been no surprise when this ‘digital revolution’ eventually extended to human sexuality as well. Whether the digital revolution is for better or worse, it’s impossible to hide from the fact we live in an era of hyper-observation and limitless accessibility. It’s a place where a hopeful lover’s dreams are dashed by catfishing, where gamers enjoying an online session in VRChat helplessly observe as another player has a seizure IRL, and where lifelike robots joke openly about world domination on national television. And I’m pretty sure these same-day Amazon deliveries by drone will land any day now.īut with all its opportunities, the reality of life in 2018 also brings a sense of post- Black Mirror paranoia.
We’re able to communicate with friends and family no matter where they are in the world, or consume TV shows, films, and even video games by streaming them instantly to our screens. What does it mean to be alive in 2018? For a significant portion of us, it’s to live in a world where access to anything or anyone can be obtained simply by ‘logging in’.