July Undercover: Infiltrating the Men Who Hate Women

Over the past month, two undercover investigations have taken us inside worlds we often ignore, or worse, underestimate. Worlds where hatred and contempt for women are collective practices, nurtured by platforms and sustained by real communities.

The title of this newsletter nods to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the bestselling novel by Stieg Larsson. Its original Swedish title, Män som hatar kvinnor (Men Who Hate Women) captures the very focus of this issue. But not everyone knows that before becoming a bestselling author, Larsson was an investigative journalist. He founded the magazine Expo, dedicating his life to exposing the mechanics of hate: primarily neo-Nazism and neo-fascism, but also misogyny. His successor, Daniel Poohl, took over after Larsson’s death in 2004 and, back in 2001, authored one of Sweden’s most remarkable undercover investigations, infiltrating the xenophobic party Nationaldemokraterna.

But that, as they say, is another story, because in this issue, we focus on two different undercover reports: one delves into forums and websites where serial rapes are filmed, shared, and normalized; the other follows the path of an algorithm capable of turning an insecure teenager into a man who hates women.

We chose to highlight these two stories, among the many published in July by major international media, because we still live in a patriarchal culture that minimizes male violence, seeks excuses for it, and rarely places it under real scrutiny.

This issue was written by Luigi and edited by Sacha.

"Undercover Among Rapists": Inside a Years-Long Investigation into the Men Behind the Abuse Videos

There is an international network of rapists exchanging videos of real assaults on public porn sites. The videos show women drugged and raped while unconscious. Some have millions of views, and the platforms hosting them not only tolerate this content but even promote it, suggesting keywords like “Passed Out” or “Drugged” in the search bar to help users find more of it. That is, until two journalists from German public television decided to infiltrate this world undercover.

The investigation is titled Undercover unter Vergewaltigern – Wir finden die Täter (Undercover Among Rapists – We Find the Perpetrators), and it was carried out by Isabell Beer and Isabel Ströh for STRG_F, the investigative format of broadcaster NDR. They began working on it in 2020, infiltrating online forums and platforms used by serial rapists with fake profiles, gradually gaining the trust of the community by pretending to be part of it.

What they uncovered is chilling. In these forums, members shared not only actual videos of rapes, but also tips and "hacks" on how to drug their victims, encouraging each other to act. Among the users, the reporters identified a man from Lower Saxony, Germany, who had been drugging and raping his wife for 15 years, filming the assaults and uploading them to porn sites. His videos had gathered more than 14 million views. His wife, who was clearly recognizable in the footage, had no idea, until a police raid in late 2024 revealed the horrific truth. Her husband had been storing hundreds of sedative pills and systematically abusing her about twice a month. Thanks to the leads uncovered during the investigation, it was possible to trace the rapes back as far as 2006.

Beyond this individual case, the investigation revealed an entire criminal ecosystem: a long-active, unmoderated online community of rapists. Following the investigation, the platform motherless.com removed some of the videos and search terms related to rape. The reporters also identified other suspects across different countries: for instance, in Switzerland, one man was arrested and placed in pre-trial detention thanks to their findings.

Back in 2023, the journalists had already reported the case to German police. They provided evidence, names, but the file got stuck in bureaucratic limbo. Investigations only moved forward a year later, by which time the suspect had continued abusing his wife dozens of times. The investigation didn’t just expose the brutality of an invisible criminal network, it also showed how institutional slowness can become complicit.

You can watch the full investigation (in German) here.

How TikTok Teaches Boys to Hate Girls

What does a 15-year-old boy see on TikTok if he starts searching for motivational content on “how to be more confident”? Where does the algorithm take him if he watches a few videos about becoming a “strong,” “dominant,” “successful” man? And why do so many teenagers end up trapped in a spiral of misogyny?

Dutch journalist Zoran Bogdanovic, from the newspaper Trouw, conducted a simple yet unsettling experiment: he created a TikTok profile pretending to be a 15-year-old boy. For a week, he just scrolled and watched a few videos. Within hours, the algorithm began feeding him increasingly toxic content: quotes about the inferiority of women, tutorials on how to become an “alpha male,” misogynistic conspiracy theories, and violent clips where physical strength was portrayed as a tool of dominance.

Bogdanovic found himself catapulted into what’s commonly referred to as the manosphere: a network of online communities—forums, profiles, channels—that promote a vision of masculinity built on hierarchy, dominance, and hatred of women. At first glance, these spaces appear to offer support and motivation to struggling boys. But beneath the surface lies a pedagogy of hate: anti-feminist, sexist, and violent. The manosphere isn’t a fringe phenomenon, it’s a full-fledged content system, infiltrating everything, supercharged by social media algorithms.

Among the recurring role models the algorithm presented to the fake teenager were Andrew Tate, kickboxer Rico Verhoeven, and populist politician Thierry Baudet. All portrayed as examples of power, confidence, and success. The message was clear: women are manipulators, and men must take back control.

The journalist says he was struck by how quickly, from a few harmless interests, the account was funneled into a stream of “alpha men vs. women” videos, male supremacist conspiracy theories, and influencer clips promoting a hypermasculine, contemptuous view of women. Some videos featured scenes of peer violence, presented as demonstrations of strength. It was all wrapped in a viral aesthetic, epic music, and punchy slogans: “Be a predator, not prey.”

According to sexologist Willy van Berlo, a boy who lacks other educational messages and is exposed to this content risks developing sexually aggressive behavior and completely losing respect for women. The investigation shows how easy it is to fall into this spiral—and how urgent it is to intervene early, with positive role models, emotional education, and spaces where teenagers can talk openly about their insecurities before someone turns them into hate.

The manosphere, Bogdanovic explains, speaks directly to a generation of boys full of fragility. And it does so with seductive language: motivational, practical, direct. But beneath that surface lies hatred. And there is no filter.

You can read the full investigation (in Dutch) here.

This is our last issue for August. Debrief is taking a short break and will return on September 5.

In the meantime, keep your eyes open.

Until the next Debrief,
Sacha and Luigi

If you've come across an undercover investigation you think we should feature, share it with us here:
👉 https://forms.gle/1JbqMBJUfoRU9MBp7

If you have suggestions, questions, tips (or insults), drop us a line at:
👉 [email protected]

If you enjoyed this newsletter, pass it along to your friends using this link:
👉 https://debrief-newsletter.beehiiv.com/

Follow us on Instagram, occasionally we'll upload content different from the newsletter:
👉 https://www.instagram.com/debrief_undercover/

We've also launched a podcast featuring interviews with the authors of memorable undercover investigations:
👉 https://open.spotify.com/show

And if that's still not enough, join our Telegram channel, where we can keep the conversation going:
👉 https://t.me/debrief_undercover