(KGTV) - The investigation into social media misconduct in the United State Marine Corps. has resulted in at least 55 Marines being punished, including seven courts-martial.
USMC said Friday the cases stemming from a massive scandal into online misconduct "proved to be a symptom of a larger problem of bias and exclusion."
The 55 Marines punished include seven special and summary courts-martial, six administrative separations, 15 non-judicial punishments, and 27 adverse administrative actions.
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At least 123 individuals have been investigated for incidents of misconduct involving the non-consensual distribution of explicit images, according to officials. Of those cases, 22 were of civilians outside Department of Defense jurisdiction and 101 were active-duty or reserve Marines.
USMC said 82 cases concerning active-duty or reserve Marines have been ruled on while 19 await a decision.
The Marine's investigation of the "Marines United" Facebook page prompted a full-scale look into misconduct across social media. Naval Criminal Investigative Service scanned nearly 131,000 images across 168 social media sites.
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Last year, nude photographs of female Marines and veterans from various military branches and other women were shared on the "Marines United" page. The accompanying posts were found to include obscene and threatening comments and showed women in various stages of undress. Some women were identified and others were not. The site was touted as being for men only.
