Millions created deepfake nudes on Telegram as AI tools drive global wave of digital abuse
By Zohaib3 min read
Millions of people around the world have created and shared deepfake nudes on the secure messaging app Telegram, a Guardian analysis has shown, as the spread of advanced AI tools industrialises the online abuse of women.
The Guardian identified at least 150 Telegram channels – large encrypted group chats popular for their secure communication – that appeared to have users in many countries, from the UK to Brazil, China to Nigeria, Russia to India. Some of them offer “nudified” photos or videos for a fee: users can upload a photo of any woman, and AI will produce a video of that woman performing sexual acts. Many more offer a feed of images – of celebrities, social media influencers and ordinary women – made nude or made to perform sexual acts by AI. Followers are also using the channels to share tips on available deepfake tools.
While there have long been Telegram channels dedicated to distributing non-consensual nude images of women, the widespread availability of AI tools means anyone can instantly become the subject of graphic sexual content viewable by millions.
On a Russian-language Telegram channel advertising deepfake “blogger leaks” and “celebrity leaks”, a post about an AI nudification Telegram bot promised “a neural network that doesn’t know the word ‘no’”.
“Choose positions, shapes and locations. Do everything with her that you can’t do in real life,” it said.
A man holds a phone with the image of a woman on it and a deepfake sticker across the front
‘The chilling effect’: how fear of ‘nudify’ apps and AI deepfakes is keeping Indian women off the internet
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On a Chinese-language Telegram channel with nearly 25,000 subscribers, men shared videos of their “first loves” or their “girlfriend’s best friend”, made to strip using AI.
A web of Telegram channels targeted at Nigerian users disseminates deepfakes alongside hundreds of stolen nudes and intimate images.
Telegram is a secure messaging app that allows users to create groups or channels to broadcast content to unlimited contacts. Under the platform’s terms of service, users cannot post “illegal pornographic content” on “publicly viewable” channels and bots, or “engage in activities that are recognised as illegal in the majority of countries.”
A review of the independent analytics and database service Telemetr.io’s data, which has an index of such channels, indicates that Telegram has shut down a number of nudification channels.
Telegram told the Guardian that deepfake pornography and the tools to create it are explicitly forbidden by its terms of service, adding that “such content is routinely removed whenever discovered. Moderators empowered with custom AI tools proactively monitor public parts of the platform and accept reports in order to remove content that breaches our terms of service, including encouraging the creation of deepfake pornography.”
In its statement Telegram said it removed more than 952,000 pieces of offending material in 2025.
In recent weeks, the use of AI tools to create sexualised deepfakes and humiliate women has exploded into public discourse, after Grok, the generative AI chatbot on Elon Musk’s social media platform X, was asked to create thousands of images of women in bikinis or minimal clothing, without consent.
The resulting outrage led Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, to announce it would stop allowing Grok to edit pictures of real people into bikinis. The UK’s media regulator, Ofcom, also announced an investigation into X.
But there is a reservoir of forums, websites and apps, including Telegram, that allow millions of people easy access to graphic, non-consensual content – and to generate and share this content on demand, without the knowledge of the women who are being violated by it. A report released on Tuesday by the Tech Transparency Project found that dozens of nudification apps are available in the Google Play Store and the Apple App store, and that collectively these have had 705m downloads.
The Guardian identified at least 150 Telegram channels – large encrypted group chats popular for their secure communication – that appeared to have users in many countries, from the UK to Brazil, China to Nigeria, Russia to India. Some of them offer “nudified” photos or videos for a fee: users can upload a photo of any woman, and AI will produce a video of that woman performing sexual acts. Many more offer a feed of images – of celebrities, social media influencers and ordinary women – made nude or made to perform sexual acts by AI. Followers are also using the channels to share tips on available deepfake tools.
While there have long been Telegram channels dedicated to distributing non-consensual nude images of women, the widespread availability of AI tools means anyone can instantly become the subject of graphic sexual content viewable by millions.
On a Russian-language Telegram channel advertising deepfake “blogger leaks” and “celebrity leaks”, a post about an AI nudification Telegram bot promised “a neural network that doesn’t know the word ‘no’”.
“Choose positions, shapes and locations. Do everything with her that you can’t do in real life,” it said.
A man holds a phone with the image of a woman on it and a deepfake sticker across the front
‘The chilling effect’: how fear of ‘nudify’ apps and AI deepfakes is keeping Indian women off the internet
Read more
On a Chinese-language Telegram channel with nearly 25,000 subscribers, men shared videos of their “first loves” or their “girlfriend’s best friend”, made to strip using AI.
A web of Telegram channels targeted at Nigerian users disseminates deepfakes alongside hundreds of stolen nudes and intimate images.
Telegram is a secure messaging app that allows users to create groups or channels to broadcast content to unlimited contacts. Under the platform’s terms of service, users cannot post “illegal pornographic content” on “publicly viewable” channels and bots, or “engage in activities that are recognised as illegal in the majority of countries.”
A review of the independent analytics and database service Telemetr.io’s data, which has an index of such channels, indicates that Telegram has shut down a number of nudification channels.
Telegram told the Guardian that deepfake pornography and the tools to create it are explicitly forbidden by its terms of service, adding that “such content is routinely removed whenever discovered. Moderators empowered with custom AI tools proactively monitor public parts of the platform and accept reports in order to remove content that breaches our terms of service, including encouraging the creation of deepfake pornography.”
In its statement Telegram said it removed more than 952,000 pieces of offending material in 2025.
In recent weeks, the use of AI tools to create sexualised deepfakes and humiliate women has exploded into public discourse, after Grok, the generative AI chatbot on Elon Musk’s social media platform X, was asked to create thousands of images of women in bikinis or minimal clothing, without consent.
The resulting outrage led Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, to announce it would stop allowing Grok to edit pictures of real people into bikinis. The UK’s media regulator, Ofcom, also announced an investigation into X.
But there is a reservoir of forums, websites and apps, including Telegram, that allow millions of people easy access to graphic, non-consensual content – and to generate and share this content on demand, without the knowledge of the women who are being violated by it. A report released on Tuesday by the Tech Transparency Project found that dozens of nudification apps are available in the Google Play Store and the Apple App store, and that collectively these have had 705m downloads.
