Phica sexist chat returns on Telegram, now with over 11,000 members sharing intimate images

A revived group on Telegram

The Telegram group 'Phica - La rinascita' takes over the name and format of Phica.eu, a website where intimate photos of women were posted without their consent, often with sexist comments. Police seized the site after numerous complaints, and the Procura di Roma opened an investigation. Il Giornale dates the closure to August 2025, while Fanpage gives 11 September 2025 as the seizure date. According to il Giornale, the Garante della Privacy launched an urgent procedure, and the hypothesised offences included aggravated defamation, unlawful dissemination of sexually explicit content, revenge porn and, in some cases, extortion.

Membership and access

Radio Popolare was the first outlet to raise the alarm, on 30 October. Counts cited by Tgcom24 show 1,023 members at 14:00 on 29 October and 1,490 at the same hour the next day. La Repubblica recorded 11,159 members at 12:00 on 2 November and 11,240 two hours later. La Repubblica also verified that access is granted within seconds of a request to join, which opens a network of sub-chats. Adnkronos reported that users had exchanged more than 52,000 messages by the time of its report on 2 November.

2026-10-29T14:00

1023 members

2026-10-30T14:00

1490 members

2026-11-02T12:00

11159 members

2026-11-02T14:00

11240 members

Data from the article text

What the chat contains

The group is organised into thematic sections where users post photos and videos of women on beaches, in front of mirrors and in private settings, according to Fanpage and La Stampa. The images are taken from social media profiles or recorded secretly by partners during private moments. La Stampa counted hundreds of photos of women from Turin, Rome, Milan and Palermo posted within a few days, and some images disappear after a timer expires. Fanpage's reporter, who joined the group, found requests for photos of relatives and a link to a bot advertising exclusive material. Adnkronos said some requests to undress women in photos probably rely on artificial intelligence.

Who is affected and why Telegram

Il Giornale reports that the original site carried images of politicians, actresses and influencers, and that some photos had been altered with artificial intelligence. Fanpage notes that Sara Funaro, the mayor of Florence, was among the people whose images ended up on the site. Tgcom24 says the choice of Telegram, the messaging app created by Pavel Durov, makes it harder to trace the administrators because of the app's nature and its privacy policies. La Stampa says it is still unclear whether the promoters of the old site are behind the new group or whether it is run by imitators.

Earlier cases

Fanpage recalls that in 2018 the Polizia postale di Firenze collected more than 100 complaints, later rising to 176, over photos of women taken from social networks and posted on the forum without authorisation. Three users who uploaded the content were identified, while the site's operators were not implicated in that inquiry. The site stayed online for years afterwards until the 2025 seizure.