On October 19th, it was confirmed that plenty of people already knew about the leaked explicit private videos and photos of the women’s volleyball team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s athletic department. These images appeared on a variety of platforms, including TikTok, Discord, Telegram, Imgur, Twitter, Reddit, and 4chan.
The Madison-UW Police, an enforcement agency for the university campus, has launched an investigation into material constituting porn revenge, which is depicted only as private content that does not require shared representation. The law in Wisconsin against revenge porn is broader than most, as it does not require the content to humiliate or embarrass, harass, or order in dissemination. It is a Class A misdemeanor in the state, with penalties of up to nine months in jail and a $10,000 fine.
The school further clarified in their statement that the women on the team were not being investigated for any wrongdoing individually.
In a thread on 4chan that surfaced on October 18, there were pictures of women from different states in various states of undress, indicating that they were athletes who had secured a national title. They were mostly discussing volleyball, and these pictures were first shared in the locker room where the Badgers celebrated their Big Ten championship win last December.
A subreddit named r/wisconsinvolleyleaks, which has almost 1,000 subscribers, was established on Oct. 24 with several individuals trying to sell the material to each other. However, another subreddit called r/WisconsinVolleyBall was banned a few days later due to lack of moderation, as stated in Reddit’s notice on the page. This banned subreddit was hosting a collection of leaked content, and while the moderators removed two comments on publicly available pictures of a clothed Wisconsin player, they left the photos themselves untouched. One redditor, who had managed to save the photo before it disappeared, complained about the “way too conservative mods here,” but some users had already downloaded it. Eventually, a redditor shared one of the photos on r/NCAAgirls, an adult forum dedicated to “celebrating beautiful college athletes,” where the images are usually sourced from the students’ own social media. This happened several hours later.
Fathers, brothers, and boyfriends alike, imagined a recurring joke as they experienced horror but failed to understand the distress felt by the women who were exposed in this manner. On Twitter and other platforms, users posted lists of teammates’ names, labeling them as “individual players sorted out,” and providing links to access all the related content in one place. A tweet expressing hope for the UCLA women’s volleyball team to be the next target of leaked nude photos gained 15,000 likes. The app, known for recommending videos, suggested videos on the For You Page. A TikTok user, claiming that the app had completely taken over their “entire fyp,” shared one of the locker-room clips on Oct. 24. Initially, some speculated that these pictures were intended to shame the women on the team or to increase attendance at matches. However, others believed that certain individuals were seeking out the explicit content for their own pleasure. Unfortunately, the reactions to these incidents were mostly unsympathetic, and the explicit imagery quickly spread to other websites.
Herb Patrick, the director of communications for the University of Wisconsin Athletics, stated that we will not provide any additional information or answer any questions regarding the statement released by UWPD last week. This decision is based on the need to protect the privacy of the student-athletes and to allow the ongoing investigation to proceed. Both the athletic department and the UW-Madison Police Department have been contacted by Rolling Stone in order to provide comments on any developments or social trends related to this case.
Each of them has been viewed over 2 million times. I’m disguising myself as a girl to be allowed to try out for the Wisconsin volleyball team,” he says in another TikTok video, which is supposed to be my “shot at the entire Wisconsin volleyball team.” Josh Richards, the co-host of Barstool Sports with Saul Caul Better and Bad Breaking Goodman, and a TikTok star with 27 million followers, is my BFF. On October 6th, Josh Richards posted a video on Instagram of Saul Goodman, the lawyer character from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, with several Badgers volleyball players DMing him. The clip received 440,000 likes and more than 6 million views on TikTok from the user @dk829200. In the comments on the TikToks referencing the scandal, someone explains that he’s helping “keep you updated on the boys volleyball team at Wisconsin.” Suddenly, I want to go to college.
One person stated, “The away game student sections are bound to create some impressive chants and posters.” It has been speculated that spectators from rival schools will come up with taunts related to the photo leak, which was mentioned in the comments of a TikTok video by a man who has frequently mocked the team. In one particular video, he pretended to be their coach and made inappropriate comments about their appearance. Despite the controversy surrounding the photo leak, the Badgers, who were predicted to be favorites in the preseason Big Ten poll and potentially win the national championship once again, defeated the Michigan State Spartans on October 21st. The team’s performance has not been affected by all the commotion. Furthermore, on October 23rd, they made a comeback against the University of Michigan Wolverines and won a nationally televised match. This achievement is even more impressive considering a popular TikTok video during the latter event, where the user wrote, “I doubt anyone in that gym is even thinking about the game right now.”
It is possible that we might not have an easy time favoring creeps. Even if there is a perpetrator responsible for leaking and distributing these pictures, the young women who live with us cannot be blamed or judged. Many people who have not seen the photos may still join the voyeuristic action by participating in lurid commentary, which could not prevent a wave of victim-blaming. These incidents continue to be cruel, exploitative, and juvenile, and they have led to new community guidelines and laws regarding revenge porn. This conversation serves as a dispiriting reminder of a massive leak of nude celebrity photos that occurred almost a decade ago.