"How beautiful are your breasts", "I wanted to ask you if you were up for an exchange of photos between women", "Very pretty nipples"... These are the messages received, by the dozens , many users on the platform dedicated to the sale of second-hand clothes, Vinted.
Since last April, an Instagram account, called
@balancetonvinted.fr,
has decided to reveal these messages in broad daylight.
Launched by a certain Anna (31), this profile followed by nearly 558 subscribers intends to denounce the sexual and moral harassment that rages on the application.
Read also“Would it be possible to have a worn photo?”: these habits that annoy on Vinted
Liberation
was able to speak with the young woman behind this account, herself the victim of numerous requests “uncomfortable, inappropriate and of a sexual nature”.
“For three years, it has been getting worse and worse.
These are the same types of message with the same approach", she explains daily, citing among her detractors users from all over the world (the site operates in 16 countries including Germany, Italy, Spain , Belgium and the United Kingdom).
It was in the face of the proliferation of these missives that Anna decided to talk about it, first on her personal Instagram account, then on a dedicated account in January 2021. This “in order to better collect the testimonies of other victims and thus make this issue more visible”.
“In 24 hours, I had more than 1,500 subscriptions, proof that this is indeed a structural problem, and not just isolated cases”, she explains in parallel to the
Madmoizelle
site .
Contacted by said media, Vinted simply replied: "For obvious reasons, we draw your attention to the fact that certain measures we take cannot be shared and disclosed, at the risk that the perpetrators of offenses become aware of them, and find ways to circumvent them.
Porn forums
However, messages of a sexual nature are not the only scourge of the application, and the scold is growing.
In its columns,
Liberation
reveals that many users have found photos of themselves on pornographic forums.
Images initially posted with the aim of reselling their clothes, and extracted from the platform without their consent.
On the Reddit social network, a discussion thread, since closed, would have even made photos of minor “Vinties” available to Internet users.
Read alsoThe mental load of Vinted: they ended up dropping the app
On Twitter, a woman wrote on June 16: “I blocked about thirty guys on Vinted because I received sexual/harassing messages for photos so that it would end up on a porn Reddit thread AND NOBODY DO NOTHING".
And to add: “And I'm not the only one, huh?
We are indeed a hundred chicks in this case, including MINORS.
There are complaints that have been filed but, again, it is up to us to fight to fight against the abusive behavior of men.
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More than 19 million users in France
The second-hand clothing resale platform became known in 2008. Founded in Lithuania and chaired by the Dutchman Thomas Platenga, it promises its customers to give new life to their clothes.
"Aren't you wearing it?
Sell it,” urges its famous ad.
With 19 million users only in France and 16% more articles put online in 2021 (versus 2020), Vinted can thus congratulate itself on having succeeded in its bet.
But at what cost ?
