This story contains content related to sexual misconduct, which may be distressing to some readers. If you or someone you know is struggling, you can call the national hotline at 1-800-656-4673. The Office of Institutional Equity also provides resources. You can find them at https://equity.nmsu.edu or (575) 646-3635. 

The subreddit r/NMSU_sluts was created in August 2023. Since its conception, it has been used as a conduit for users to share and sell explicit images of female students.  

The subreddit was owned by two New Mexico State University students, u/soulsukker and u/Acceptable-Intern-12, the latter of whom claimed to be a Garcia Hall resident in his post requesting dormitory sex. 

Upon entering the page, visitors were met with prostitution, other users looking for hook ups, and requests for pornographic photos of women at NMSU. Multiple posts asked for women by name. Mainly, members of the women’s soccer team.  

President of the Women’s Rights Association, Maxine Brown, discussed how she accidentally stumbled upon the Reddit page one day while looking for the NMSU subreddit. 

“I simply typed in NMSU on Reddit, and NMSU_sluts was the first thing that popped up before the actual university,” Brown said. “It was just disgusting to look through, it was disheartening. I thought, this is my university? More students are [active] on here than the real NMSU server. If that is the case, that NMSU server that’s associated with the university is a fraud, as it does not represent the interests of the average student.” 

r/NMSU has existed since 2011 and has 2,000 members, while r/NMSU_sluts has existed for less than two years yet has gained 1,600 members. r/NMSU_sluts grew 5.6 times faster than the university’s official page; an extremely large number considering NMSU has a female student population of 60% as of 2022. 

Brown continued to detail r/NMSU_sluts, where she said she saw users offering revenge porn of their exes and encouraging each other to get explicit photographs of female students, some offering to pay money for specific women. 

“Users [were] encouraging others to get photos of girls who they claim to be their childhood friends,” Brown said. “They were paying each other, potentially hundreds of dollars over chats and in emails. As well as social media [pages created] for non-consensual pictures of girls they claimed they were childhood friends with and their female classmates. 

”Not to mention [they put] their face and phone numbers attached to a photo with a caption that says, ‘Send me a dick pic or call me. I’ll suck your dick.’ So on and so forth. When I contacted the girls with their numbers attached and told them about their predicament, absolutely none of them were even aware of it. They were all horrified.”

Brown said she found messages on r/NMSU_sluts that implied the subreddit was not the only means people were using to distribute these images. One being r/nmsucrucesexposed, a Reddit that was allegedly banned for illegal activity; including prostitution, pimping out women, and the distribution of nonconsentual nude photographs.  

Aside from the Reddit pages, members also claimed to have private messaging channels on Telegram and Discord dedicated to posting more of these pornographic images. They were so widely known that the subreddit was filled with people requesting links for these channels. 

Until a few months ago, these communities flew under radar, with the NMSU staff claiming they were unaware. Brown recounted how at times she felt the issue was dismissed by male students while she was trying to get the word out about these pages.  

“Since they were at the Women’s Rights Association stand, I told them about how girls who were on the server said that there were glimpses of other women sleeping or walking or eating that were being sexualized,” Brown said. “Like a girl sleeping in her underwear, she’s completely unaware, just random girls. [A male student] looked at me super condescendingly and asked ‘Well, what if it was consensual? How do you know it wasn’t consensual?’ Their ignorance is astounding.” 

During the investigation of this subreddit, on April 14, 2025, r/NMSU_sluts was taken down. Less than an hour after, a new subreddit, r/NMSU_FWB, was created by the same moderator, u/soulsukker, also known as Michaelangelo. This one had rules to specify users are not allowed to sell images on the page, unlike its predecessor. 

While there is no official statement on what happened to the original subreddit, one frequent user of both pages, u/AffectionatePath1316, said in a r/NMSU_FWB post, “WHAT SKANK GOT NMSU SLUTS BANNED?.” 

When u/AffectionatePath136 was asked to explain further in a direct message, he said that he believed the subreddit was taken down for distributing illegal porn.   

“Bruh idk i think some cray illegal porn or something,” u/AffectionatePath1316 wrote. “They say [it was taken down because r/NMSU_sluts had too few moderators] but then the same amount of mods make this new one nmsu_fwb like seconds after. I think it’s from these bros selling their ladies nudes without them ladies knowing.”  

He then went on to explain he thought the person who reported them was one of the victims of r/NMSU_sluts and raved about the support he felt from the community of the subreddit.  

”Man i love them boys but if [you] got one opp with the server, yo, it’s got to be the stank porn them ladies shut down the Reddit. Because they take ball cray porn without them ladies knowing, but I love my boys bro,” he wrote. 

Brown stated on multiple occasions that she reached out to the police, both university and local, but without a victim they said they cannot proceed with a case.  

“The adviser [Ida D’Antonio-Hangen] for the Women’s Rights Association, my organization which was speaking out about this very topic, led me to [a] NMSU police officer who told me to tell the Las Cruces PD. I did last month, twice, and heard nothing back,” Brown said.

D’Antonio-Hangen, a retired FBI agent of 22 years and criminal justice professor at NMSU, stressed the importance of remaining aware and vigilant at parties or any gathering where women are often taken advantage of.

“I don’t know the specific sexual assault rate here at New Mexico State, but in general, when you have college campuses, you have the parties, and that’s where bad things seem to happen. It’s just common knowledge,” D’Antonio-Hangen said.  

“I’ve had previous students who disclose that they had been sexually assaulted at a party and things like that. It’s something that happens at the parties. As an anti-human trafficking advocate, we have our Humans for Humans group. We go and inform the sororities and fraternities, but mainly sororities, on how to protect themselves, even when they go to these parties, so they don’t become a victim.” 

She urged the victims of the sexual harassment to report what happened to them to the police. She explained that often perpetrators will make their victims feel like no one will believe them, but to not be weighed down by any guilt. 

“They need to report [the sexual harassment that happens to them] and not feel the guilt that they feel. A lot of times, the guys will tell them, ‘Oh, nobody’s going to believe you, because you consented to this.’ She needs to report it, and if it happens on campus, she needs to report it to the New Mexico State police department, then whoever the jurisdiction is.” 

When asked about the subreddit, Interim Chief Justin Dunivan of campus police, urged anyone with knowledge to contact the department. 

“I have limited information on this topic, but would encourage anyone with information or a victim to contact us immediately,” Dunivan wrote.  

NMSU declined to comment on the issue but encouraged those with knowledge to contact them with any further information. You can contact the NMSU Police Department at (575) 646-3311 and [email protected].