Phica.eu: Proof That Women Are Never Safe

Phica.eu: Proof That Women Are Never Safe

The scandal surrounding Phica.eu is not just an Italian problem, not just an “online issue”. It is a brutal reminder that women are never safe, not even in the digital spaces we thought belonged to us. Phica.eu was not a small, hidden corner of the internet. It was a massive sexist platform that existed since 2005, growing quietly while it violated the dignity of countless women.

For almost two decades, it allowed men to upload photos of women, some taken from social media, others stolen from private moments, and turned them into objects for ridicule and sexual exploitation. Nothing was off limits: ordinary women, students, professionals, mothers, the highest ranking political leaders of the country. Several pictures of women were manipulated, zoomed in on and commented on with degrading words by thousands of men who hid behind screens.

It wasn’t just Phica.eu. At the same time, a Facebook group called “My Wife” collected more than 32,000 men, who shamelessly shared intimate images of their partners and strangers without their consent. Phica.eu itself had over 200,000 registered users, actively participating in a system of violence, a society that thrives on the idea that women’s bodies are public property.

Phica.eu was not a small website but a massive platform with around 11 million visits in June 2025 alone, 87% of which came from Italy. Visitors spent nearly 10 minutes per session, clicking through more than 12 pages each time, which shows how obsessively the site was consumed. It even demanded €145 from users who wanted their data or accounts deleted, turning exploitation into profit.

This scandal cannot be treated as an isolated aberration, nor dismissed as something that will fade away with the closure of a single site. Phica.eu and similar platforms reveal a systemic sickness: a culture that normalizes the violation of women, both online and offline. Until laws, institutions, and above all society itself, begin to treat these acts as the violence they are, women will remain vulnerable in every sphere of life. Dismantling these toxic structures requires more than police raids. it requires education, solidarity among women, and a collective refusal to allow men to continue profiting from our exploitation. Only then can digital spaces and the world at large, become places where women are truly safe. ♀