A disturbing investigation has thrust a dark corner of the internet into the spotlight, revealing how a seemingly obscure platform allegedly became a hub for men sharing tactics to harm their own partners.
Published on March 26 as part of CNN’s As Equals series, the exposé uncovered a global network linked to Motherless.com, a site reportedly founded in July 2011 and dedicated to sharing extreme explicit content, as well as associated Telegram groups, where users allegedly exchanged advice on exploiting women.
“Jesus Christ. Just when you think the world can’t get any worse, here we are…” one netizen fumed, reacting to the disturbing details.
CNN launched a month-long investigation into a dark corner of the internet, focusing on the website Motherless.com
Image credits: The Yuri Arcurs Collection/freepik (not an actual photo)
Trigger Warning: This article includes graphic and deeply disturbing details involving violence and exploitation that may be upsetting to readers.
Last month, CNN released the investigation as part of its As Equals series, which focuses on global gender inequality.
The catalyst for the exposé was a 2024 trial in France involving Dominique Pelicot and dozens of other men, who allegedly used a chatroom called “Without Her Knowledge” to recruit individuals to harm his wife, Giselle Pelicot, while she was under the influence of substances.
Giselle was reportedly exploited by her husband and dozens of other individuals more than 200 times over nearly a decade, from 2011 to 2020.
Image credits: pvproductions/freepik (not an actual photo)
As the case made international headlines and shocked audiences worldwide, CNN launched its investigation to determine whether such behavior was an isolated incident or part of a broader global pattern.
According to the outlet, Saskya Vandoorne, CNN’s Paris Bureau Chief, led the investigation into the online networks linked to Motherless.com, alongside a team of reporters.
Motherless.com hosts adult content often described as extreme, including material categorized under labels such as “real i**est,” “sleep,” “crying,” and “blackmail,” among others.
Image credits: CNN
The majority of content shared on the site is uploaded by its users rather than produced by the company itself, making it a community-driven site.
She spent months infiltrating hidden online communities and invite-only chat rooms on platforms like Telegram to document how users allegedly shared “best practices” for dr**ging and exploiting women.
The site describes itself as a “moral free file host where anything legal is hosted forever” and reportedly receives millions of visits each month, including 62 million visits in February alone this year.
More than 20,000 explicit videos of unconscious women were uncovered in the investigation
Image credits: CNN
The United States is the site’s largest market, accounting for roughly 38% of its total traffic and, according to the investigation, forming its core audience.
Reporters found that even after the chatroom linked to the Pelicot case was shut down, similar communities continued to thrive on Motherless.com and on Telegram.
They reportedly uncovered more than 20,000 videos featuring unconscious or sedated women, often uploaded without consent.
Image credits: freepik (not an actual photo)
According to the outlet, German investigative journalists Isabell Beer and Isabel Ströh described disturbing “sleep” videos in which “men film themselves lifting the closed eyelids of women to show they are sleeping or sedated…”
One chilling comment by an unnamed user of the website, advising another on substance dosage, read, “ALWAYS start low. You’re thinking long game, so if first time ain’t enough, up the dose.”
Another message read, “That night three guys bought… and I streamed my unconscious wife to them,” while a third user, allegedly selling illegal “sleeping liquids,” wrote on his Telegram account, “Your wife won’t feel anything and won’t remember anything.”
Millions of users reportedly flocked to the site to consume content involving the graphic exploitation of women
Image credits: The Yuri Arcurs Collection/freepik (not an actual photo)
Users were allegedly charging around $20 per viewer to access live-streamed acts of violence, with cryptocurrency used as a payment method in an attempt to anonymize transactions.
A man from Poland, identified as Piotr, a pseudonym used to protect his identity, was reportedly found by reporters to have been exploiting his 40-year-old wife for years while she was unconscious.
When asked by undercover CNN journalists, “Does your wife suspect anything?” he replied, “I’m hiding it well enough, but I have to be careful.”
Image credits: Dragana_Gordic/freepik (not an actual photo)
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In an Instagram clip shared by journalist Saskya, she described tracking Piotr through clues in his messages and locating him at a restaurant with his wife, whom he had allegedly referenced online.
Saskya chose not to confront him, citing concerns for the woman’s safety, and instead said she contacted the police with the findings.
Earlier this month, Polish authorities arrested an unidentified man on charges of aggravated r*pe; however, local media outlets reported that the suspect may be Piotr, though this has not been officially confirmed.
While many victims in such cases may remain unaware, CNN also interviewed several survivors, including one who said she was aware of her husband’s actions.
One survivor shared that her “husband of 16 years” was “r**ing her while she was passed out”
Image credits: pvproductions/freepik (not an actual photo)
Zoe Watts shared that she “learned that her husband of 16 years had been crushing her son’s sleeping medicine into her tea and r**ing her while she was passed out.”
She said, “We worry about who’s coming behind us when walking down the street, or even who’s friending us on Facebook. We worry about going to our car late at night in a parking lot, but we don’t worry about who we lie next to. I didn’t realize I had to.”
Her husband reportedly confessed on a random Sunday in 2018, where he “reeled off a list of his wrongdoings… as if it was, you know, a shopping list.”
Reflecting on the tea he used to give her, Watts added, “I was just grateful I had a cup of tea before bed, because I was so tired and didn’t have to make it. You don’t expect anything other than innocence from your partner.”
Image credits: CNN
She also recalled the reactions she received, saying, “I’ve had people say, ‘Yeah, but he’s your husband,’ or ‘but you weren’t awake… so it’s not the same as being attacked in an alleyway, is it?’”
“There’s a shame and a guilt that comes with it—that maybe I should have known, or I can’t believe I didn’t realize. Why didn’t I connect those dots?”
The site’s popularity in the United States is partly attributed to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which generally shields platforms from liability for user-uploaded content.
The investigation noted that the law “creates spaces where individuals can operate behind a veil of anonymity.”
“The idea that you can’t trust your own husband to give you food or drink? It’s deeply chilling,” wrote one concerned netizen
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