Aus dance artists found sharing demeaning photos of women in Facebook group Tracks and Snatch

CONTENT WARNING: The following contains descriptions of the non-consensual sharing of sexually explicit imagery. If you feel distressed by this story, or if you or someone you know has been affected by sexual harassment, you can speak to a friendly counsellor at 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.

The ABC has today run a story outing private Facebook group Tracks and Snatch, where members of the local dance music industry shared degrading photos and videos of women without their consent.

While it’s now defunct, the male-only group was active for four years and was used to share sexually explicit content before being shut down.

The ABC’s Ange Lavoipierre spoke to freelance reporter and investigator of the group, Phoebe Loomes, who said she was never a member of the group but her research exposed explicit and degrading content.

Speaking up for the first time, Loomes said: “So it’s called Tracks and Snatch… because they exchanged music — tracks — and photos of women — snatch.”

“It’s not innocent,” she added. “It’s private sex, there’s Snapchats in there, it’s all photos without these girls’ permission […] It was upskirts in clubs, girls passed out in clubs, girls passed out in bed after intercourse.”

Two past members of the group have gone on record to talk to the ABC

Rowan Dix, aka singer and DJ Joyride said:

“It was I guess equal parts producers and music-makers from around the country sharing tracks that they’d made to other DJs but then also photos of women,” he told the ABC.

“From sharing photos that these girls had posted online already, to photos that had been sent to these guys privately.”

DJ and producer Raph Lauren said he left the group after realising it was “softcore porn”.

“Straight away it was pretty apparent that there was going to be softcore porn in this group and not really what I want to be seeing randomly when I open up Facebook,” he said.

“But I think the reality is that there’s a massive bro problem in the Australian music scene in festival culture, and I think particularly in Australian dance music.”

While the ABC’s article features no screen shots of the Facebook group, nor does it name the people who started the group, its report does feature a picture of a male wearing a T-shirt with the group’s name on it:

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.