A channel on the messaging app Telegram with 70,000 users is dedicated to exchanging methods to sedate and rape or sexually assault women, according to rumors that spread on the internet in late 2024 and early 2025.
For example, a post on X made these claims (archived):
As of this writing, the post had more than 142,000 views. The claim also appeared on Reddit, Facebook and Bluesky.
The rumor stemmed from a report by STRG_F, an investigative unit of German journalists that depends on ARD — a joint organization of all regional German public broadcasters — and ZDF — the country's public television channel. STRG_F is also known as Funk, a word that translates to "radio" in English.
Funk published the 41-minute video report on YouTube:
Indeed, the report explains that STRG_F journalists infiltrated not one but several Telegram channels in which thousands of users across the world exchanged tips — mostly in English — on how to sedate women in order to perform sexual acts on them while they were unconscious.
Snopes has not independently infiltrated such channels to verify Funk's report.
In the reporting, some users said some of the women consented to the practice, but many said the women were not aware of what was happening to them, which constituted sexual assault and rape in many jurisdictions. The alleged targets included girlfriends, wives and friends, as well as sisters and mothers, according to the report and to the news release announcing the report, of which we read a translation.
Further, the video report says users shared videos and photos of their victims unconscious and being submitted to nonconsensual sexual acts. Snopes viewed the report and reconciled it with an English translation of its transcript.
According to the transcript, the Funk reporter said on camera:
That's hundreds of users. And they exchange ideas about the best way to get women unconscious, how best to sexually assault them, ask for tips there, give each other tips on which ways you can use to make women unconscious, which ways you have to be careful with because otherwise [she] could die. And [they] upload what they do […] with women. And I haven't heard of a single video in history where the woman said, "I want that."
A user said in one of the channels that his images of his unconscious girlfriend had gained "around 75,000 views." The user added in English: "She's a pornstar and she doesn't even know it," according to a screen capture of a message on one of the Telegram channels shown in the video report.
The same user wrote later "I fantisize about drugging her and bringing men home to use her regularly," in a scenario reminiscent of the case in France in which a man, Dominique Pélicot, drugged his wife to rape her and allow strangers he met on the internet and invited to their home to rape her as well. "I'm sure when we don't have roommates I'll actually make it happen." Funk's report came out days before a French court sentenced Pélicot to 20 years in prison.
"It's not rape if she didn't know it happened," one user wrote, according to a screenshot in the report.
The journalists said one of the groups they infiltrated included around 73,000 members. They also warned the authorities in Germany, the U.S. and Canada, sending law enforcement invitation links to the groups, but they reported that three months later, it was unclear whether any of the police departments had taken action. For example in Germany, it is not a crime to possess images and videos of a rape. In repeated attempts to obtain answers, the journalists said German authorities remained evasive and that they did not know whether criminal investigations into the Telegram network happened.
The journalists said they'd get removed from groups for not sharing content themselves, but then could easily join new channels, suggesting there were many, and that if any channel was shut down, others would quickly open.
In the course of the investigation, the journalists revealed that one of the users shared a link to his online store, on which he sold products to sedate women. They said they easily acquired two bottles with different products.
The first one was sold as "gel remover," and the second was shipped from Malaysia as a "hair serum." A chemical test of the "gel remover" revealed that it was gamma butyrolactone (GBL), a molecule that, in contact with a human body, turns into gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), better known as a "date rape drug." A test of the "hair serum" showed a mix of an anti-vomiting agent, an animal anesthetic and "designer benzodiazepine." The chemist interviewed in the report said one of these compounds had not been on the authorities' list of drugs to test for in cases of sexual assault following sedation.
Snopes contacted the team of journalists to ask about their reporting and verification methods. "To verify our findings in the video, a colleague from our fact-checking team had full access to all chats and reviewed them," the team replied in an email.