Sexist sites, which ones have been closed down, the offences and the public prosecutor's offices investigating. What we know so far

The hunt for the sexist sites is now in the hands of the Public Prosecutor's Office, which is now investigating those who, in order to obtain clicks, host 'stolen' images of women, famous and common, on their sites, and those who comment on them in an obscene if not downright threatening manner. The Rome Public Prosecutor's Office is waiting for an initial report from the Postal Police, which has already started its research to trace who manages the platforms, but also to identify those who post the photos and the authors of the sexist and offensive comments. At that point, the Roman magistrates will be able to open a file, but there are so many complaints and complaints, all over Italy, that other Public Prosecutors' Offices will also join them in pursuing these Internet realities that are not even too submerged.

In Genoa, reports have already arrived from women who recognised themselves in the Facebook group 'My Wife', the one from which the scandal started. In the past few days, an activist from the Ligurian capital had found numerous fellow citizens on the page: policemen, military personnel, doctors, health managers, lawyers, teachers, university lecturers. All subscribed to the group in which they exchanged pictures of their spouses to be exposed, without consent, to the eyes of strangers. Some users had protected themselves with anonymity, but many, who had not had the shrewdness, hastened to unsubscribe as the media clamour grew, apparently also after being asked for money, episodes that, if ascertained, could open new investigation files.

From Milan, meanwhile, the family lawyer Annamaria Bernardini de Pace has launched a class action against Facebook (no response so far from Meta). The other side of the investigation concerns who is behind these sites. The manager of the infamous 'Phica.eu' left an on-line reply, before self-cancelling himself from the web, which collected images of both common and famous women on a forum - there was also the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni - which were then commented on, in the tones one can imagine, by hundreds of users.

For the president of the Union of Criminal Chambers, Francesco Petrelli, contacted by Ansa, an injured party can now first of all 'hope to obtain that the operators remove as soon as possible from their respective sites and social networks the images that constitute damage to the offended person, because this would constitute the minimum compensation from the point of view of the interruption of the illicit conduct and the reflections of damage'. However, this is a complex subject, even for lawyers: 'The irruption of digital technologies accompanied by the increasingly massive and indiscriminate and easy use of AI poses a problem of knowledge of those tools and of the damage that a free and reckless use of those means can determine. Knowledge alone is not enough to defend oneself. From that knowledge comes the awareness of the inadequacy of the defence tools. It is easy and demagogic to say 'let's toughen the penalties', 'let's introduce a crime'. I believe very little in this matter,' he adds, 'about the usefulness of the repressive criminal instrument. Above all in this field, education and culture certainly count more, both at an individual and collective level, and then we should think, uphill road, about control instruments in the management of these instruments, which we know still constitute a no man's land'.

"The parliamentary committee of enquiry on feminicide and all forms of gender-based violence remains the privileged venue for launching the investigation into the recent events involving sexist chats, forums and profiles. The founding law of 9 February 2023 no. 12, the work already carried out on the subject and the great competence of the commissioners and commissioners that make it up, make it the most competent seat to quickly and seriously tackle the issue'. This is what commission president Martina Semenzato (Noi Moderati) said. "A meeting of the Bureau is already scheduled for next 9 September on the subject to identify the list of hearings that will necessarily involve the Postal Police, operators, companies, platforms, professionals and competent institutions, but also the women and men involved in the events. The commission will also endeavour to shed light on the multiplicity of proposed pdl's on the subject. Let us remember that the committee, in this bicameral legislature, has so far always worked unanimously," Semenzato points out, "highlighting the fact that, although so robust and complex, the objectives remain common.