NCS reported on ‘online rape academy,’ but ’62M men’ figure misrepresents findings

Claim:

NCS reported greater than 62 million males attended an “online rape academy” educating them the way to drug and sexually assault their wives and companions.

Rating:

What’s True

In March 2026, NCS reported the findings of a months-long investigation into a web site and chat group educating males the way to drug and sexually assault their wives and companions. The investigation featured reporting about pictures and movies of what it dubbed as “‘sleep’ content” on the pornographic web site Motherless.com. One of the web site’s customers shared a hyperlink to the now-defunct Telegram chat group named “Zzz,” main NCS to search out almost 1,000 customers had joined its discussions.

What’s False

However, social media posts inaccurately claimed NCS reported 62 million males “attended” the “academy.” That figure, which additionally got here from the NCS article, represented the overall variety of visits to your entire pornographic web site in February.

In April 2026, social media customers claimed NCS reported that greater than 62 million males attended an “online rape academy” the place they have been taught the way to drug to sleep after which sexually assault their wives and companions.

For instance, on April 15, an X person posted (archived), “NCS exposes a global ‘online rape academy’ that teaches men how to drug and rape women without detection. Over 62 million men attended in February alone.” The put up acquired round 2 million views. Other users shared the identical declare on Bluesky, Facebook, Threads and X.

(@shannonrwatts/X)

In quick, this rumor contained a mix of fact and falsehood.

It’s true that in late March 2026, NCS reported the findings of a months-long investigation into what it labeled as “‘sleep’ content,” particularly zeroing in on the Motherless.com pornographic web site, in addition to a now-defunct Telegram chat group named “Zzz.” NCS’s reporting stated the “Zzz” group as soon as comprised almost 1,000 customers. 

However, the “62 million” figure cited in social media posts represented the overall variety of visits to your entire pornographic web site in February 2026. Motherless.com options pictures and movies organized into greater than 100 pornographic classes. Examples embody “blonde,” “skinny” and “webcam” — amongst many others.

Snopes contacted NCS’s Saskya Vandoorne, Kara Fox and Niamh Kennedy, who labored on the investigation, to ask concerning the false social media declare. We additionally contacted Motherless.com through e-mail and Telegram through its personal platform to ask about its content material elimination course of and to request additional remark. We will replace this text if we obtain extra info.

NCS’s investigation of ‘sleep’ content material

On March 26, the journalists behind NCS’s As Equals reporting collection — which the cable information community described as “a NCS project that aims to reveal what systemic gender inequality looks like” — revealed the article “Exposing a global ‘online rape academy’ that is teaching men how to abuse women and evade detection.”

The story started by recounting the trial of Dominique Pélicot, who in 2024 admitted to a French courtroom he repeatedly drugged his unwitting spouse, Gisèle Pélicot, to an unconscious state and invited dozens of males to rape her lots of of occasions. Dominique Pélicot organized the invites in a web based chat named “Without Her Knowledge.”

The NCS article then talked about the Motherless.com pornographic web site and its 62 million visits in February:

One porn website, Motherless.com, is residence to greater than 20,000 movies of so-called “sleep” content material uploaded by customers, with lots of of 1000’s of views.  

The web site, which had round 62 million visits in February alone and whose core viewers is within the United States, describes itself as a “moral free file host where anything legal is hosted forever.”  

The legality of some materials posted is in critical doubt.

So-called “sleep” content material is categorized utilizing descriptive tags resembling #passedout and #eyecheck.

In these movies, males movie themselves lifting the closed eyelids of girls to indicate they’re sleeping or sedated, with some “eyecheck” movies surpassing 50,000 views. Inside the Motherless “sleep” neighborhood – first reported on by German investigative journalists Isabell Beer and Isabel Ströh – members commerce recommendation on the way to drug their companions.

A search of Semrush.com, a web based advertising firm, estimated 62.7 million visits to Motherless.com in January and 81.7 million in February. Semrush described its estimates as “highly reliable,” including they need to be considered as “directional rather than exact.”

The Motherless.com web site hosts movies organized in additional than 100 totally different pornographic classes together with “Asian,” “Brunette” and “Lesbian.” The high of the web site displayed hyperlinks with labels together with “Videos,” “Images,” “Categories” and “Chat,” in addition to an exterior hyperlink studying, “18&Abused.”

While NCS’s investigators browsed Motherless.com, one of many web site’s customers linked to a Telegram chat group named “Zzz.” There, NCS’s Saskya Vandoorne posed as a person to study extra concerning the actions of the group’s almost 1,000 customers.

Origins of ‘on-line rape academy’ identify

French lawmaker Sandrine Josso originated the phrase “online rape academy,” NCS reported:

Sandrine Josso, a French lawmaker who, after being drugged by a former French senator, has campaigned to lift consciousness about drug-facilitated sexual abuse (DFSA), referred to as the teams “schools of violence.”

“I would even call them an online rape academy, where every subject is taught. There are all the ‘subjects’ and ‘disciplines’ needed to become a good rapist or sexual predator,” she stated.

The NCS investigation featured extra info, for instance particulars concerning the darkish on-line world making the most of “‘sleep’ content” with sleep-inducing medication and for-profit livestreams. The reporting additionally included three firsthand accounts of girls who stated their husbands drugged and raped them of their sleep with out their information.

NCS credited German investigative journalists Isabell Beer and Isabel Ströh with first reporting the story concerning the on-line world of drugging and raping girls.

Sources