Two victims of Marines nude photo-sharing social media network come forward
LOS ANGELES: Two women from the US Marine Corps, one still on active duty, came forward on Wednesday as victims of a clandestine all-male social media network of military personnel and veterans under investigation for sharing nude photos of female colleagues.
The existence of a private Facebook group called ‘Marines United’ and its surreptitious distribution of explicit images of women in the Armed Forces — often with obscene, misogynist commentary — came to light in published reports over the weekend.
Initially uncovered by The War Horse, a non-profit news site run by Marine veteran Thomas Brennan, the scandal was first reported on Saturday by the California-based Centre for Investigative Reporting through its radio-podcast Reveal.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has opened an inquiry into the matter and senior lawmakers on Capitol Hill immediately denounced the activity.
The Marines’ top commander, General Robert Neller, weighed in with a videotaped rebuke on Tuesday, calling the disclosures an ‘embarrassment’ to the corps. “I don’t think such behaviour is that of true warriors,” he said.
On Wednesday, two women identifying themselves as victims appeared with their Los Angelesbased attorney, Gloria Allred, urging others to come forward and calling on Neller to meet with victims in person.
“I can tell you that this exact behavior leads to the normalisation of sexual harassment and even sexual violence,” said Erika Butner, 23, who served in the Marines for four years before leaving the service last June.
Butner said she learned months later that she was among numerous women from all branches of the military whose pictures were posted without permission to a shared digital drive and organised by name, rank and military base. In some cases, contact information was included, she said. — Reuters