CNN Investigation Uncovers Online Network Teaching Men to Drug and Sexually Assault Women

A CNN investigation has revealed a disturbing online ecosystem where men share advice on drugging and sexually assaulting their female partners without their knowledge, but social media posts have misrepresented the scope of the findings.

The investigation, published in March 2026 by CNN’s As Equals reporting team, documented the existence of forums and chat groups dedicated to teaching men how to commit and conceal drug-facilitated sexual assaults. The report followed months of undercover work by journalists Saskya Vandoorne, Kara Fox, and Niamh Kennedy.

The investigation centered on the pornographic website Motherless.com and a now-defunct Telegram chat group called “Zzz.” On Motherless, CNN discovered more than 20,000 videos categorized as “sleep content,” often tagged with descriptors like “#passedout” and “#eyecheck.” Some of these videos, which show men lifting women’s eyelids to demonstrate their unconscious state, have garnered more than 50,000 views.

While browsing Motherless, CNN’s team discovered a link to the Telegram group, where Vandoorne posed as a male user to infiltrate the community. The group had nearly 1,000 members who exchanged advice on drugging and assaulting women.

However, viral social media posts claiming “62 million men attended an online rape academy” misrepresent CNN’s reporting. The 62 million figure, cited in the original article, refers to the total number of visits to the entire Motherless.com website in February 2026 – not the number of men accessing assault tutorials.

Motherless.com hosts content across more than 100 pornographic categories, with “sleep” content representing just one segment of the site’s offerings.

The term “online rape academy” itself comes from French lawmaker Sandrine Josso, who described these online communities as “schools of violence” after she herself was drugged by a former French senator. “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,” Josso told CNN.

The investigation was initially prompted by the high-profile case of Dominique Pélicot, who admitted in a 2024 French court case to repeatedly drugging his wife, Gisèle Pélicot, and inviting dozens of men to rape her hundreds of times while she was unconscious. Dominique Pélicot organized these assaults through an online chat group named “Without Her Knowledge.”

CNN’s reporting also detailed a broader dark web ecosystem profiting from this type of content, including sellers of sleep-inducing drugs and for-profit livestreams. The investigation featured firsthand accounts from three women whose husbands had drugged and raped them without their knowledge.

The CNN team credited German investigative journalists Isabell Beer and Isabel Ströh with first exposing the online world of drugging and assaulting women. The German reporters published their findings in November 2025 through the German broadcaster NDR.

Snopes, which fact-checked the viral social media claims about the CNN report, contacted CNN’s journalists, Motherless.com, and Telegram for comment but had not received responses at publication time.

While the viral social media posts exaggerated the scale of the problem, the CNN investigation nonetheless revealed a disturbing reality of online communities dedicated to facilitating sexual assault – a criminal ecosystem that operates largely in the shadows despite its significant real-world harm.