When it comes to historically ‘bad’ online behavior, few people are more despicable or notorious than Hunter Moore. Touted the ‘most hated man on the internet’, Hunter Moore was a DJ-turned owner of website called IsAnyoneUp. IsAnyoneUp was an explicit blog-style site that accepted user submissions of extremely personal, private photos. Often times these photos would be uploaded by ex partners of people in popular rock bands, but was also flooded with photos of normal people, the majority of these photos being shared without consent from the people in them. Not only would their faces be included, but full names, addresses and even workplaces would be posted as well, effectively doxing anyone who had the misfortune of being posted. This site is one of the most popular examples of a type of harassment officially called ‘revenge p***’ and is the reason it is now considered a crime in 48 US states.
Created in 2010, the site was only live until 2012 and managed to decimate several people’s lives and reputations in that short time. Even calling himself a ‘professional life-ruiner’ at one point, Moore loved the fame and attention his explicit site garnered and claims money and notoriety were his sole motivations. When begged to take down nude photos from any of his victims, Moore would often laugh at and publicly mock them for even suggesting he intervene. One woman tried stabbing Moore after he refused to take down her photos, which he also posted about in jest on his site. Because of the caveat of the content being submitted by other users and not Moore himself, Moore thought himself untouchable from the law as the type of crime was new. Unfortunately for Moore, he finally hurt the wrong family.
One of Moore’s victims, Kayla Law was also posted on his site with her full name. It did not take long for all of her peers and employer to find out. Kayla was distraught at the damage done to her reputation and like many others, tried to get Hunter to pull her photos from the site. After he refused, she turned to her parents. Luckily, her mother, Charlotte Laws being a lawyer, the photos got taken down eventually, but Charlotte could not stop there. After speaking to other victims and seeing how many people were affected, Charlotte sought to take down the explicit site for good and make harassment like this a crime.
In 2012 the site was finally taken down and the domain sold to an anti-bullying organization called bullyville, an organization dedicated to spreading awareness about online harassment. Moore then continued to push his luck and accuse the owner of bullyville of vile acts for which he was successfully sued for $250,000 in defamation. In 2014, the FBI arrested Moore dropping the bomb that he acquired multiple explicit photos posted on his site from hacking in to personal emails. He was charged and served two years in prison for identity theft and aiding and abetting in the unauthorized access of a computer. Today, Charlotte Laws has worked tirelessly to make systemic change when it comes to online crimes and has made posting revenge p*** a federal offense.
In this case, these people’s privacy was violated by those they knew but also via email hacking. Ways one can avoid getting their email hacked is to change your password frequently and complicated to protect from being cracked. Users can also protect their email by not joining public wifi networks. Finally, users can avoid getting personal photos stolen by using encryption, and sharing photos only by secure means of commination like networks on a VPN.