Social media users shared misinformation referencing CNN's genuine investigative reporting about a dark corner of the internet.
By Jordan Liles, snopes/fact-check
In March 2026, CNN reported the findings of a months-long investigation into a website and chat group teaching men how to drug and sexually assault their wives and partners. The investigation featured reporting about images and videos of what it dubbed as "'sleep' content" on the pornographic website Motherless.com. One of the website's users shared a link to the now-defunct Telegram chat group named "Zzz," leading CNN to find nearly 1,000 users had joined its discussions.
However, social media posts inaccurately claimed CNN reported 62 million men "attended" the "academy." That figure, which also came from the CNN article, represented the total number of visits to the entire pornographic website in February. Some users acknowledged the "62 million" number pertained to total visits but missed that the count included all of the website's categories of pornographic content.
A rumor social media users discussed in April 2026 claimed CNN reported that more than 62 million men attended an "online rape academy" where they were taught how to drug to sleep and then sexually assault their wives and partners. One Snopes reader emailed to ask, "Is there a rape club online that gets millions of viewers?"
For example, on April 18, a TikTok user posted (archived) a video promoting the rumor, including saying in part, "It was discovered that 62 million men were in attendance for a web seminar where a guy taught them how to drug and assault women without them knowing." Other users shared the claim on Bluesky, Facebook, Threads and X.
In short, this rumor contained a mixture of truth and falsehood.
It's true that in late March 2026, CNN reported the findings of a months-long investigation into what it labeled as "'sleep' content," specifically zeroing in on the Motherless.com pornographic website, as well as a now-defunct Telegram chat group named "Zzz." CNN's reporting said the "Zzz" group once comprised nearly 1,000 users.
However, the "62 million" figure cited in social media posts represented the total number of visits to the pornographic website in February 2026. Some users, including in the below video example, acknowledged this information but missed the fact that the number pertained to all of the content on the entire pornographic website. Motherless.com features images and videos organized into more than 100 pornographic categories. Examples include "blonde," "skinny" and "webcam" — among many others.
Snopes contacted CNN's Saskya Vandoorne, Kara Fox and Niamh Kennedy, who worked on the investigation, to ask about the false social media claim. We also contacted Motherless.com via email and Telegram via its own platform to ask about its content removal process and to request further comment. We will update this article if we receive more information.
CNN's investigation of 'sleep' content
On March 26, the journalists behind CNN's As Equals reporting series — which the cable news network described as "a CNN project that aims to reveal what systemic gender inequality looks like" — published the article "Exposing a global 'online rape academy' that is teaching men how to abuse women and evade detection."
The story began by recounting the trial of Dominique Pélicot, who in 2024 admitted to a French court he repeatedly drugged his unwitting wife, Gisèle Pélicot, to an unconscious state and invited dozens of men to rape her hundreds of times. Dominique Pélicot organized the invitations in an online chat named "Without Her Knowledge."
The CNN article then mentioned the Motherless.com pornographic website and its 62 million visits in February:
One porn site, Motherless.com, is home to more than 20,000 videos of so-called "sleep" content uploaded by users, with hundreds of thousands of views.
The website, which had around 62 million visits in February alone and whose core audience is in the United States, describes itself as a "moral free file host where anything legal is hosted forever."
The legality of some material posted is in serious doubt.
So-called "sleep" content is categorized using descriptive tags such as #passedout and #eyecheck.
In these videos, men film themselves lifting the closed eyelids of women to show they are sleeping or sedated, with some "eyecheck" videos surpassing 50,000 views. Inside the Motherless "sleep" community – first reported on by German investigative journalists Isabell Beer and Isabel Ströh – members trade advice on how to drug their partners.
A search of Semrush.com, an online marketing company, estimated 62.7 million visits to Motherless.com in January and 81.7 million in February. Semrush described its estimates as "highly reliable," adding they should be viewed as "directional rather than exact."
The Motherless.com website hosts videos organized in more than 100 different pornographic categories including "Asian," "Brunette" and "Lesbian." The top of the website displayed links with labels including "Videos," "Images," "Categories" and "Chat," as well as an external link reading "18&Abused."
While CNN's investigators browsed Motherless.com, one of the website's users linked to a Telegram chat group named "Zzz." There, CNN's Saskya Vandoorne posed as a man to learn more about the activities of the group's nearly 1,000 users.
Origins of 'online rape academy' name
French lawmaker Sandrine Josso originated the phrase "online rape academy," CNN reported:
Sandrine Josso, a French lawmaker who, after being drugged by a former French senator, has campaigned to raise awareness about drug-facilitated sexual abuse (DFSA), called the groups "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 said.
The CNN investigation featured more information, for example details about the dark online world profiting from "'sleep' content" with sleep-inducing drugs and for-profit livestreams. The reporting also included three firsthand accounts of women who said their husbands drugged and raped them in their sleep without their knowledge.
CNN credited German investigative journalists Isabell Beer and Isabel Ströh with first reporting the stories about the online world of drugging and raping women, including in a series of YouTube documentaries.
Lutz Ackermann, editor-in-chief of Panorama die Reporter for the "STRG_F" documentary series, emailed Snopes about CNN's article, which primarily focused on one website and one Telegram group. He said, "I think the CNN reporting represents only a small part of a much larger international rape network which was already uncovered by my colleagues Isabell Beer and Isabel Ströh." He noted his colleagues discovered "dozens of Telegram groups with up to 70,000 members and rape videos reaching millions of views." He also said their findings "triggered a political debate in Germany."
