AFL nude photo leak scandal, dubbed ‘dikileaks’, sparked a mad scramble in the industry

One email linking to nude pictures of more than 45 past and present players has set off a frantic 24 hours and plunged the footy world into turmoil.

The AFL nude photo scandal was sparked by an email sent to one club whose highest profile player was among the explicit images.

The email containing the graphic Google Drive link naming more than 45 past and present players including Brownlow medallists, was sent to the interstate club on Tuesday night, setting off a chain of events which plunged the AFL world into turmoil.

It wasn’t until 6am on Thursday after the images were circulating widely on social media platforms for more than 24 hours that the graphic photographs and videos were finally removed.

The AFL moved quickly once notified, with its integrity unit working around the clock with the E-Safety Commission and Google technicians.

The nude images were removed from the Google drive on Thursday morning.

At this stage the AFL has no idea who is behind what is now been dubbed “dikileaks”, by the wider footy community.

There were no ransom demands, or threats associated with the initial email, nor has there been any correspondence with the victims of the scandal.

At first the AFL thought they were dealing with a situation similar to the celebrity nude photo leak in 2014, whereby a man hacked into the Apple iCloud accounts posting revealing photos online.

But it quickly became apparent many of the images had been sent to other parties on social media apps. Another theory asks if it is a result of a catfishing situation. Did someone, or a group of people create a fake profile and chase players over social media platforms asking them to send nudes?

Some of the images and videos are old, some more recent. Some are clearly identifiable. Some are just mind bogglingly graphic. Some are also clearly doctored.

But the motive, timing or perpetuator simply remains a mystery.

The AFL’s first priority was getting the images and videos removed. But the sheer volume, the Google drive titled ‘AFL Nudes’ contained 498Mb of images and videos, was proving a challenge to even the savviest Google technicians.

When contacted, the league confirmed the images were removed very early Thursday morning, 30 hours after they were first notified.

What remains of the link now is the alphabetical list of player names who were involved.

“The next step is having the Drive and link removed with Google,” an AFL spokesperson told the Herald Sun.

To say there was a mad scramble of who was named, or more importantly the white knuckle hope they were not included, is an understatement.

By Wednesday morning, more clubs from interstate and Victoria had contacted the AFL, urging it to get the link removed immediately.

Senior AFL sources began contacting the Herald Sun, who broke the story just after 7pm on Wednesday.

After that, phones were ringing hot, with player managers hoping their clients weren’t on the now infamous list.

By nightfall it seemed many of the wider footy community who had now seen the list knew of someone who was featured. “Cripes one of them is my friend, another is my friend’s son,” read one text from an AFL insider.

One player who was listed, who asked not to be named, said his first call was to his wife to explain that old pictures of him had surfaced.

He then spoke to other players who had also been involved. At first there was the typical schoolyard laughing it off and wisecracks about each other’s anatomy. But deeper the mood was incredulous and flat he said, before pausing to rethink, changing the word to more of a feeling of disappointment.

“It’s a gross breach of privacy. It’s just not fair,” he said.

The privacy issue cannot be emphasised more strongly.

The AFL Player’s Association has made contact with every player, past and present involved issuing a statement on Wednesday night to say it was “an appalling breach of privacy that is unacceptable.

“We will support our impacted members though our legal and wellbeing services. This is a police matter and we will continue to assist as necessary.”

It’s understood the clubs are dealing directly with any of their past players involved.

By Thursday morning AFL greats like Brownlow medallist Jimmy Bartel and Garry Lyon were commenting on radio, urging people not to share the link which in itself can carry criminal charges under the revenge porn act, with Victoria passing legislation around sexting, or sharing explicit images of a person without their consent in 2014.

Bartel called the images “disgusting” saying many of them appeared to be doctored or fakes.

But many were not. The question now still lingers why this invasion of privacy happened in the first place and how to stop it from happening again in a digital age.