ROME (AP) — An internet site which showed photos of thousands of Italian women without their consent and attracted obscene and explicit comments was forced to shut down on Thursday after a backlash.
The site, which featured prominent women, including Premier Giorgia Meloni and European Parliament member Alessandra Moretti, also included posts which idealized violence against women.
The online forum, which took its name from slang for female genitalia, has been around for at least two decades but it only drew national attention after Moretti formally lodged a complaint with police after finding her photo displayed without her permission.
It displayed unauthorized photos and videos of hundreds of public figures, along with unsuspecting actresses, influencers and ordinary women. The images were often lifted from TV or social media profiles. It counted 200,000 users and displayed pictures identified by names or certain themes.
“They have been stealing photos and clips from TV shows I’ve appeared on for years, then altering them and feeding them to thousands of users,” Moretti said.
She said the site was among many that operate “with impunity” even though previous complaints have been filed against them.
“This type of site, which incites rape and violence, must be shut down and banned,″ she said.
Following the comments by Moretti, and complaints by dozens of other women, the site’s administrators posted an online statement on Thursday saying “with great regret” it was being shut down.
They attributed the “toxic behaviors” to a “wrong use of the platform, which damaged its original spirit.”
Italian women, from ordinary workers and housewives to top politicians, are fighting back against a proliferation of websites displaying their photos without their consent, often accompanied by obscene language.
Their efforts gained national prominence when activists earlier this summer denounced a Facebook page dubbed “Mia Moglie” ("My Wife"), where men posted unauthorized photos of their spouses and succeeded in getting it taken down.
Some men said their wives had agreed to their images being posted, but no female comments were visible on the site.
Experts said websites that display images of women without their consent were “the other face” of physical and sexual violence.
“Digital tools became not only a way for men to exercise control over women, but are increasingly used to offend, humiliate and attack them,” Sabrina Frasca, activist with anti-violence group Differenza Donna, told The Associated Press.
“Mia Moglie,” had around 32,000 members before it was shut down last week by Facebook -owner Meta, which said it acted against the site “for violating our adult sexual exploitation policies.”
Italy has been struggling with how to prevent and address gender-based violence, as femicides — the killing of women because of their gender — has emerged as a systemic problem deeply rooted in Italy’s patriarchal culture. A series of violent incidents has reignited national debate over how to confront these crimes.
“Women have always been the arena on which men challenge each other and measure their virility,” said feminist author and activist Carolina Capria. “It’s a game in which women are merely a commodity that adds value to the man who possesses them.”
Italy's government approved a draft law in March that for the first time introduces the legal definition of femicide into the country’s criminal law and punishes it with life imprisonment. The bill still needs final approval in the lower house to become law.
While the center-left opposition welcomed the move, it stressed that the new law only tackles the criminal aspect of the problem, while leaving economic, educational and cultural sources of misogyny unaddressed.
FILE - Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni delivers her speech at the CISL Union meeting in Rome, July 17, 2025. (Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP, File)
This photo shows Italian Democratic Party lawmaker Alessandra Moretti at a conference in Rome, March 15, 2025. (Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison Friday in the first verdict from eight criminal trials over the martial law debacle that forced him out of office and other allegations.
Yoon was impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024 triggered huge public protests calling for his ouster.
The most significant criminal charge against him alleges that his martial law enforcement amounted to a rebellion, and the independent counsel has requested the death sentence in the case that is to be decided in a ruling next month.
Yoon has maintained he didn’t intend to place the country under military rule for an extended period, saying his decree was only meant to inform the people about the danger of the liberal-controlled parliament obstructing his agenda. But investigators have viewed Yoon’s decree as an attempt to bolster and prolong his rule, charging him with rebellion, abuse of power and other criminal offenses.
In Friday’s case, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Yoon for defying attempts to detain him, fabricating the martial law proclamation, and sidestepping a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting and thus depriving some Cabinet members who were not convened of their due rights to deliberate on his decree.
Judge Baek Dae-hyun said in the televised ruling that imposing “a grave punishment” was necessary because Yoon hasn’t shown remorse and has only repeated “hard-to-comprehend excuses.” The judge also restoring legal systems damaged by Yoon’s action was necessary.
Yoon’s defense team said they will appeal the ruling, which they believe was “politicized” and reflected “the unliberal arguments by the independent counsel.” Yoon’s defense team argued the ruling “oversimplified the boundary between the exercise of the president’s constitutional powers and criminal liability.”
Prison sentences in the multiple, smaller trials Yoon faces would matter if he is spared the death penalty or life imprisonment at the rebellion trial.
Park SungBae, a lawyer who specializes in criminal law, said there is little chance the court would decide Yoon should face the death penalty in the rebellion case. He said the court will likely issue a life sentence or a sentence of 30 years or more in prison.
South Korea has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions since 1997 and courts rarely hand down death sentences. Park said the court would take into account that Yoon’s decree didn’t cause casualties and didn’t last long, although Yoon hasn’t shown genuine remorse for his action.
South Korea has a history of pardoning former presidents who were jailed over diverse crimes in the name of promoting national unity. Those pardoned include strongman Chun Doo-hwan, who received the death penalty at a district court over his 1979 coup, the bloody 1980 crackdowns of pro-democracy protests that killed about 200 people, and other crimes.
Some observers say Yoon will likely retain a defiant attitude in the ongoing trials to maintain his support base in the belief that he cannot avoid a lengthy sentence but could be pardoned in the future.
On the night of Dec. 3, 2024, Yoon abruptly declared martial law in a televised speech, saying he would eliminate “anti-state forces” and protect “the constitutional democratic order.” Yoon sent troops and police officers to encircle the National Assembly, but many apparently didn’t aggressively cordon off the area, allowing enough lawmakers to get into an assembly hall to vote down Yoon’s decree.
No major violence occurred, but Yoon's stunt caused the biggest political crisis in South Korea and rattled its diplomacy and financial markets. For many, his decree, the first of its kind in more than four decades in South Korea, brought back harrowing memories of past dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed leaders used martial law and emergency measures to deploy soldiers and tanks on the streets to suppress demonstrations.
After Yoon's ouster, his liberal rival Lee Jae Myung became president via a snap election last June. After taking office, Lee appointed three independent counsels to look into allegations involving Yoon, his wife and associates.
Yoon's other trials deal with charges like ordering drone flights over North Korea to deliberately inflame animosities to look for a pretext to declare martial law. Other charges accuse Yoon of manipulating the investigation into a marine’s drowning in 2023 and receiving free opinion surveys from an election broker in return for a political favor.
A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shouts slogans outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol waits for a bus carrying former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs as police officers stand guard outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A picture of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is placed on a board as supporters gather outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
