Female military service members are being forced to deal with male service members sharing nude photos of them, reports Vice. The photos were shared through a secret Dropbox account, which reportedly contained hundreds of photos of women throughout all five branches of the armed forces.
Vice describes the images as selfies or images taken by another party. They note that some images also appear to depict the servicewomen engaging in sexual activity. Some of the explicit photos are juxtaposed with fully-clothes images of the women, in an attempt to degrade them further. Dropbox has since deleted the offending folder and its contents.
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"It’s been reported through NCIS and the appropriate measures have been taken," said Capt. Christopher Harrison, a Marine Corps spokesperson, to the Military Times. "I believe the site has been taken down."
This is the second time that the Marines have dealt with a non-consensual nude photo sharing or “revenge porn” scandal. Last year, the Center for Investigative Reporting broke the story of a secret Facebook group called Marines United that shared explicit images of female service members. Some of the nude images were tagged “legacy,” meaning they originated from the first revenge porn scandal.
Congress passed a law in December 2017 that made the "wrongful broadcast or distribution of intimate visual images" a criminal offense, subject to military court-martial and dishonorable discharge. 97 Marines were implicated in the original scandal following an investigation; seven were later court-martialed.
The images in the current scandal come from a similar Facebook group that sprung up when Marines United was shut down after the initial scandal broke. Vice ominously notes that there are several other closed male-only Marines Facebook groups that may be trading similar material.
Refinery29 has reached out the Department of Defense and representatives for the Marines for comment.
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