The U.S. Department of Defense investigates hundreds of marines for spreading naked photos of female soldiers and veterans in a private group on Facebook. Many of them are still enlisted in the military, and have been identified by their full name, rank and military duty station in the photos posted on the Page.
Many of the naked photos were shared without consent or knowledge from the women photographed in them.
The group was mostly managed by soldiers in the U.S. and UK from members serving in the Marine Corps, Navy Corpsman and Royal Marines. According to an anonymous veteran and member, the group had become a place for "stalker-like" photography, revenge porn and hate speech.
More than 2,500 comments about the photos were left by group members, with many of them were obscene.
The photos have been on the Facebook's group for at least two weeks before the accounts that were associated with the photos have been shut down. There are doubts that the pictures are still being shared on the internet.
The report further notes that some of the offenders have since been discharged as a result of the investigation, said Sergeant Major Ronald Green.
The photo sharing began about a month after the first Marine infantry unit was assigned women on Jan 5th. It highlights ongoing problems of sexual harassment within military ranks that could hurt recruitment of women.
The group's activity was first discovered by The War Horse, a nonprofit news organization run by Marine veteran Thomas Brennan. Within a day after Brennan contacted the Marine Corps' headquarters in January 30th, the social media accounts behind the sharing had been deleted by Facebook and Google at the Corps' request.
A formal investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service was then launched.
The service is deeply concerned about the incident, and the damage it could do to the Marines, according to a 10-page "Office of Marine Corps Communications Public Affairs Guidance" document that also provided lists resources for victims, including a website to report crimes.
Dozens of Google Drive folders linked from the Facebook Page have been deleted. They included nude women in the military photographed with their names and military branches. They also included screenshots of their social media accounts and images of sexual acts. Many images appear to have originated from the consensual, but private images, while some others were taken by the women themselves.
These acts violate not only the military stated code of conduct, but also Facebook's terms of use.
