Covert Nightlife Filming Sparks Outrage and Legal Scrutiny (Full Transcript)

[00:00:05] Speaker 1: These women are being recorded without their knowledge. I'd like to know how he did it. I'd like to know why, exactly.

[00:00:16] Speaker 2: The videos are uploaded to social media. That's me.

[00:00:22] Speaker 1: Look at how low the camera's positioned, though. Taking pictures with my friends. There's you in the background.

[00:00:28] Speaker 3: I had no idea. I couldn't believe it. I was like, oh, my God, what's going on? I didn't consent to this. Didn't ask for that.

[00:00:38] Speaker 2: Making money for the people behind the camera.

[00:00:41] Speaker 4: It's just disgusting. It makes me feel sick that people even think like that.

[00:00:48] Speaker 5: This industry generates billions of cumulative views which translate into multi-million businesses for the content creators. It's not just about making money.

[00:00:58] Speaker 1: It's for the content creators.

[00:00:59] Speaker 2: We've spent days undercover, tracking down the people behind the accounts.

[00:01:04] Speaker 6: There isn't really a single law that applies to this situation.

[00:01:10] Speaker 7: Why are you filming women without their consent?

[00:01:26] Speaker 1: For us, it was a normal night out. Hi. Hi. Are you excited? So excited. We all met up at a hotel, got ready together, played a lot of music, and then we met up in central Manchester.

[00:01:43] Speaker 2: Grace was out celebrating her friend's 21st birthday. Her little sister Sophie had just turned 18. She came along for her first night out in the big city.

[00:01:56] Speaker 4: We had a great time. We were dancing, we were drinking, not caring the world.

[00:02:01] Speaker 2: Nearly a year later, they found out they'd been filmed without their knowledge. The footage had been uploaded to social media and viewed more than three million times. That's me.

[00:02:12] Speaker 1: Look at how low the camera's positioned, though. I know. Taking pictures with my friends. There's you in the background. I had no idea. I know. I'm completely above you. Just chatting away.

[00:02:26] Speaker 2: In the video, Grace is filmed from a low angle. She leans over to take a picture with a friend and her skirt rides up, exposing her bum.

[00:02:34] Speaker 1: So you could see some of my bottom in that video and no-one else can see that from eyesight, so it's very like, oh, I'm being exposed here.

[00:02:48] Speaker 4: I can't even believe that people go around doing that and then make money off it. It's...it's disgusting.

[00:02:58] Speaker 2: Grace and Sophie are two of hundreds of women who have been filmed and posted without their knowledge. People are covertly filming women on nights out and then posting these videos on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. We have identified more than 65 accounts and between them, they have more than three billion views.

[00:03:17] Speaker 8: Being freshly 18, it has changed my perception of what it's like to be a woman.

[00:03:24] Speaker 4: It's changed my perception of what a night out should be, because this isn't normal. Since seeing the footage, I've not been out in Manchester because I'm just scared now, I'm paranoid, that I'm going to get videoed.

[00:03:37] Speaker 1: I'd like to know how he did it. Was it hidden? I don't know. I don't know what happened. I'd like to know why exactly.

[00:03:49] Speaker 2: The video of Grace and Sophie was posted to one of the most popular accounts. It has nearly 200 million views and 400,000 subscribers.

[00:04:01] Speaker 5: So this industry generates billions of cumulative views, which translate into multi-million businesses for the content creators. A video with a million views could generate between £3,000 and £5,000 for the content creator. And that's just in the advertising money that comes via YouTube.

[00:04:25] Speaker 2: It took days of work to track down the face behind this channel. We finally identified him as 35-year-old Florian Rekka. He lives in Sweden and flies to the UK to covertly film some of his most popular videos. We wanted to see if we could spot him filming. To go down and look for forage. What are you thinking? So we went undercover on Halloween night in Manchester, one of his busiest nights of the year. At 2am, we finally spotted him. The man next to him is his brother, Roland. He runs another account. The brothers appeared to be pretending to look at their phones while holding their cameras at waist height and filming two women walking past. We'd started the night looking for Florian Rekka, but saw four other men filming. This man is Dean Hill, who we discovered is a local taxi driver who runs his own YouTube account. We watched him double back to film a group of girls from behind on a small camera held close to his chest. The men seemed to know each other. We saw them stopping to chat throughout the night. Hours after we left, footage was already beginning to appear online. We saw clips of girls accidentally showing their underwear, filmed from lots of different angles. There was also girls filmed from behind, struggling to keep their skirts down. We now knew how the videos were made, but we still wanted to know why. We sent questions to Mr Rekka, but didn't hear anything back. We had traced him to an address in Sweden, so flew there to try and speak to him.

[00:06:17] Speaker 9: How far away are we now? About seven kilometres. OK, we're getting close, then. The only option we really have now is to go to his flat and see if we can get any more answers from him.

[00:06:35] Speaker 2: We didn't know anything about his routine. There is a light on, so we know that someone is home, so all we can do is wait. There was no guarantee he would show up. Hi, Florrie Rekka. We're from the BBC. Why are you filming women without consent? He didn't even acknowledge us. Five minutes later, he was out again, running away. Have you seen a man wearing all black? He didn't return. In that direction. We've just been to see Mr Rekka. He didn't engage with us at all, but from the looks of his social media, he's still posting. This video went up just two hours ago and it already has hundreds of views. We tried one more time. As it was getting dark, a car appeared in a different car park.

[00:07:31] Speaker 7: Florrie Rekka.

[00:07:31] Speaker 2: The moment he saw our producer, Abi, he ran to his car and drove off.

[00:07:35] Speaker 7: Florrie Rekka, we want to ask you some questions about why you've been filming women without their consent.

[00:07:41] Speaker 2: That was our last glimpse of Mr Rekka.

[00:07:46] Speaker 10: You did manage to ask a question. Yeah, I asked a question. Like, he pelted back to his car, got in, and I asked him one question as he was reversing and driving off.

[00:07:57] Speaker 11: It's the second time he's run away from us now, and he has heard our question, even if he's chosen not to answer it. So there's no doubt that our questions have reached him and he's choosing not to answer them.

[00:08:17] Speaker 2: Back in Manchester, the police are working with the local council to crack down on people filming these type of videos. Greater Manchester Police say it's exploring civil routes to tackle this issue. While authorities try to control the situation, more videos are being posted. So it's getting busy around, like, one?

[00:08:37] Speaker 3: Yeah, around 1.00, 1.30, that's when everyone, like, finds different clubs to go to. But actually, right there is exactly where we got filmed. It was right by where that door was, where the musician usually is. And we saw nobody.

[00:08:50] Speaker 2: Anna Rose was out in Manchester with a work friend. Like most of the women we've spoken to, she had no idea she was being recorded. The original video has been deleted, but two years on and copycat versions continue to circulate. She wants to see social media companies take control of the problem.

[00:09:11] Speaker 3: It's uncomfortable. Because you think it's been deleted, but then it's just there again, and you just know your face is on somebody's phone, or camera, or whatever. Either way, it's on someone's device. I didn't consent to this. Didn't ask for that. Why is my face on your device? There needs to be more control in what's posted, whether it's copycats or the original. They need to be taken down immediately.

[00:09:37] Speaker 2: Filming in public isn't a crime, but there are concerns some of this content could amount to harassment. We took our findings to a lawyer specialising in image-based abuse.

[00:09:49] Speaker 6: There are a number of laws that could apply. There are offences of voyeurism. There is something called the Protection from Harassment Act. With content that we've seen, the complexity lies that it sort of skirts between the lines of these various pieces of legislation.

[00:10:11] Speaker 2: We identified the men behind 12 accounts and contacted all of them. We only heard back from two. One man, whose real name we've not been able to trace, says he has not violated any rules. He says he only publishes public walking tour videos. Dean Hill also responded he strongly denies any wrongdoing. He told us he doesn't film any explicit content and reviews all of his footage before it is uploaded to make sure any inappropriate content is removed. He says his camera is always visible and denies he focuses on individual women, adding that all filming takes place in his own time and not while working as a taxi driver. We contacted the social media platforms with details of our investigation. YouTube has deactivated two accounts linked to Florian Reca. He's already publicly reached out to YouTube, asking for it to be reinstated. He says he only publishes public walking tour videos. The social media company says it rigorously enforces its community guidelines. TikTok has banned four accounts we identified and says it does not allow any non-consensual sexual imagery on its platforms. The channels we sent to Meta, which runs Facebook and Instagram, remain active. Meta told us it has removed content that violates its policies. The original video of Grace and Sophie has been deleted, but there's no guarantee it's gone forever.

[00:11:44] Speaker 1: He's got everything, so even if it was removed, my video, there's no saying it could just be uploaded by someone else. And that's pretty scary to think about because there is probably no shutting it down.