The Cyber Department of the State Attorney's Office today (Friday) filed an indictment in the Be'er Sheva Magistrate's Court against Idan Mikhalov (21) of Ofakim, for sexual harassment and harassment and invasion of privacy, following the systematic distribution of photos and videos of a sexual nature, via the Telegram app.
The indictment includes about 170 Israeli women, some minors and some acquaintances, whose personal photos and details were used by Mikhalov to distribute on the Internet.
According to the indictment, filed by attorneys Itai Gohar and Inbal Klein, the defendant set up and managed a number of dedicated channels in the Telegram app, in which he used to distribute images and videos of a sexual nature, including while performing sexual acts, of Israeli young women and minors, without their knowledge and consent.
Defendant managed a number of different content channels, which included some 2,900 Telegram users, disguising his activity in the widget by creating various user accounts.
Defendant used to sell the access to view content on the content channels to network users for variable usage fees.
For example, some of the channels were defined as closed and "exclusive" and for which the defendant charged a one-time entrance fee of NIS 60, while another channel was defined as "closed" and "exclusive", for which the defendant charged a monthly entrance fee of NIS 60, and the rest was Exposed even without registration for occasional users.
Defendant emphasized to users that the channels under his management contained exclusive sexual content obtained by him, which had not yet been widely distributed and did not appear in other groups and channels.
To this end, the defendant used to attach to the publications a photo of the personal profile of young women and minors on social networks, as well as details of their personal details, in order to prove that this is "authentic" content of Israeli young women and not pornographic material from around the world.
Thus, for example, the defendant published in the channels under his management: "Blue and white products, out-of-this-world content, new and verified sets, things we obtained that are nowhere to be found - all videos / gold photos. Public group, two groups permanently for NIS 120, over 600 Media in each group, price 60 (NIS per month) Main group ".
Further to that, the indictment lists about 170 victims of crime whose intimate photos and videos were distributed in groups, along with their personal details.
From this list, at least about 36 of the victims were minors aged 17-14.
The Director of the Cyber Department of the State Attorney's Office, Dr. Haim Wismonski, stated: "This case joins a number of additional indictments filed by the Cyber Department of the State Attorney's Office over the past two years, concerning the enforcement of the" Video Law ", which prohibits the distribution of sexual content .
The phenomenon of advertising sexual content is particularly common in the Telegram app, where recently there has been a proliferation of dedicated groups engaged in the distribution and publication of sexual content without the consent of those photographed. "
