{"id":23940,"date":"2012-12-10T13:09:33","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T13:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=23940"},"modified":"2015-03-13T15:59:58","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T15:59:58","slug":"truthdigger-of-the-week-kyanonymous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/12\/truthdigger-of-the-week-kyanonymous\/","title":{"rendered":"Truthdigger of the Week: @KYAnonymous"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hunter Moore is doing something few people concerned with how others regard them would likely ever do. He has created two websites that invite disgruntled users to publish<\/a> nude photos of ex girl- and boyfriends along with their names, links to social media profiles and, until a short while ago, their physical addresses.<\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a> with BetaBeat in late November, the 26-year-old bragged about his new site\u2019s mapping feature, saying visitors would \u201cbe able to stalk or do whatever they want to do\u2014I know, it\u2019s going to be scary as shit.\u201d He retracted the promise in a separate interview later on, saying<\/a> he was \u201cdrunk and coked out\u201d when he mentioned the feature, but caused readers to feel confusion and disgust again by saying that \u201cif someone fucking got killed over my site I\u2019d make a shit ton of money. I\u2019m not gonna lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

In yet another interview broadcast this year, Moore said<\/a> his intention \u201cwas to hurt people and hurt the girl, or girls, that did hurt me\u201d after his previous relationships ended. When a girl who became a victim of Moore\u2019s brand of social media talked about being called names and otherwise bullied by his followers on Twitter, Moore responded by saying the Internet has made expectations of privacy unrealistic and that the capitalization of \u201crevenge porn\u201d is inevitable and by implication permissible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how you can point your finger at me,\u201d he said. \u201cYou took the picture. I mean, I\u2019ve been justifying this in my head for over a year and a half. … At the end of the day, it started with you and you took these pictures. … I mean, it\u2019s 2012. What do you expect to happen? Somebody\u2019s gonna monetize this and I was the person to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore\u2019s failures of conscience and morbid taste for publicity have attracted attention from all corners of the Web. The interested parties include members of Anonymous, a collective of digital vigilantes who use their hacking skills to oppose surveillance and state and corporate control over the Internet. @KYAnonymous is the Twitter handle of a member of the group who published a video call to arms (see below) for his digital allies to discourage Moore through harassment. The operation, which bears the codename #OpHuntHunter, seems to have briefly crashed<\/a> Moore\u2019s site in early December and published a document<\/a> claiming to contain his personal information, including his Social Security number and home address. At the time of this posting, HunterMoore.tv was inaccessible.<\/p>\n

@KYAnonymous told BetaBeat that the group called for a mobilization against would-be \u201crevenge porn\u201d kings like Moore \u201cbecause they destroy unsuspecting people\u2019s lives, social lives and work lives and take advantage of some kind of bond of trust they once entered with the person who submitted the photo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[H]unter Moore is enabling the sickos of the world to stalk and possibly rape, maim, or kill these people via tracking systems like GPS, Google maps,\u201d the collective added, \u201cand we don\u2019t tolerate invasions of personal privacy to victimize someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legal basis for shutting down Moore appears uncertain. As The Guardian reports<\/a>, he \u201cenjoys some degree of legal protection\u201d via the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Section 230 of the law states that website owners are not liable for material submitted to them by third parties, so although Moore appears personally free from the law, users who publish nude photos of others without permission are not. Says Mary-Rose Papandrea, an associate professor at Boston College Law School: \u201cSection 230 doesn\u2019t protect the people who actually provide the content. So that means that anyone who provides a photo to Hunter Moore\u2019s website or any other website\u2014Reddit, whatever it might be\u2014Section 230 offers them no protection whatsoever.\u201d Those people could be held liable for \u201cintentional inflection [sic] of emotional distress and publication of private facts,\u201d The Guardian reports.<\/p>\n

Some courts may be willing to interpret the law in a way that would allow for the prosecution of Moore, however, Papandrea added. \u201cThere\u2019s also a possibility that Section 230 will not protect people like Hunter Moore himself because there have been some courts increasingly willing to read an exception into Section 230 for ISPs [Internet Service Providers] or websites that have facilitated the posting of content that violates tort law or other law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until the legal details are settled, it\u2019s up to private crusaders like @KYAnonymous and the mob of digital do-gooders to threaten Moore with justice and protect the privacy and physical safety of those he exposes. For dedicating his or her knowledge and skills to the well-being of possible victims and encouraging others to do the same, we honor @KYAnonymous as our Truthdigger of the Week.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 truthdig.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the law lags behind, it\u2019s up to digital do-gooders such as @KYAnonymous to protect the privacy and physical safety of those put at risk by \u201crevenge porn\u201d predators like Hunter Moore. He has created two websites that invite disgruntled users to publish nude photos of ex girl- and boyfriends along with their names, links to social media profiles and, until a short while ago, their physical addresses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-whistleblowing-surveillance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}