Women selling their clothes on Vinted discovered in a new Channel 4 documentary how their photographs were used without permission and sexualized online.
Vinted’s Dirty Laundry: Dispatches, airing Friday at 7:30 p.m., uncovers the hidden risks of the immensely popular secondhand shopping app.
Founded in Lithuania in 2008, the platform is currently valued at £4.5 billion and has 65 million users across 21 countries, 16 million of which are in the UK.
But the documentary exposes how images of British women selling products on the app were sexualized on another website without their consent. Called Vinted S****, their motto was “when you sell your clothes but want to get attention.”
One of the victims, Lydia, 28, expresses her horror at learning that her Vinted photos were used in this way: “It’s very disturbing. I had no idea this was happening and it has made me feel extremely unsafe.”
Vinted’s Dirty Laundry: Dispatches, airing on Friday at 7.30pm, uncovers the hidden risks of the immensely popular second-hand shopping app (file photo)
Vinted says it is available 24/7 and will resolve all issues, but 11 days after Lydia reported the website to Vinted, she still had not received a response. Dispatch alerted Vinted about this site and the website was taken down.
Discovering the website, presenter and journalist Ellie Flynn says: “It’s basically massively oversexualized women trying to sell clothes on Vinted – it’s got loads of different profiles of different women all over the world.”
‘Some of the images of women selling things like bikinis or summer suits that are tighter. Some of them are just everyday outfits, but they are all worn in an overtly sexual way and not at all what these women intended.
‘It’s so disgusting. “I will never cease to be amazed by the things you can find on the Internet, but this really seems like a new low.”
The host continues: “It’s hard because I don’t really want to upset anyone, but if my photos were being used on this website and I had no idea about it, I’d like to know, so I feel like I should reach out to the girls, at least on the United Kingdom.
One of the women whose photos appeared on the website says she would like to meet Ellie to see the full website and talk about it.
After seeing her images on the site, personal trainer Lydia, from Wales, says: ‘It’s very disturbing. It makes me feel uncomfortable.’
They tell her how the website links to her Vinted profile, which makes her feel “really scared.”
Discovering the website, presenter and journalist Ellie Flynn (pictured) says: “It’s basically massively oversexualised women trying to sell clothes on Vinted – it’s got loads of different profiles of different women all over the world.”
“We’re innocent people who want to sell our clothes and I’m guessing half the people on this website don’t even know this is happening to them,” says Lydia.
“I’m going to take down all my pictures and put them back up for sale with the clothes on the hanger… it just makes you feel really vulnerable.”
Lydia contacts Vinted while she is with Ellie, explaining in the message that the website discovered is “very sexual in nature,” adding, “This is very disturbing and I feel very insecure.”
“Vinted has a very important role to play in this, Vinted or a team should investigate that aspect of security,” Lydia adds to Ellie.
But after 11 days, Lydia has no answer.
On the other hand, consumer expert Iain Martin talks about people who have complained about receiving inappropriate direct messages commenting on clothes or photos of themselves modeling clothes that they have uploaded.
It also refers to cases where people steal photos from Vinted and trade them on other online forums.
Vinted told the Channel 4 show: ‘We are taking the allegations seriously… we act as quickly as we can against anything that breaches our terms and conditions… (including) measures that may result in sellers being banned outright. who repeatedly ignore our policy. …we understand that members are not always aware that the item they sell or purchase may be recalled…
‘Our teams are… constantly working to improve and develop new tools and technologies to improve our systems…
‘We are very sorry to hear about these experiences… and we are committed to taking necessary action against members who violate our community standards…
‘We have a number of measures in place to maintain security on the platform and we are constantly updating these processes and improving our level of personal support to members.
“We have informed the aforementioned website to request its immediate closure.”
Vinted’s Dirty Laundry: Dispatches airs on Friday 18 October at 7.30pm on Channel 4