'Most hated man on the Internet' is charged with email hacking to get photos for revenge porn site
Posting sexual photos of people online without their consent isn’t explicitly illegal in most states, unless the images at issue have been copyrighted.
But a California man described by Rolling Stone as “the most hated man on the Internet” because he has operated a so-called revenge porn website featuring such images crossed the line into criminal conduct when he hacked into email accounts to get photos for IsAnyoneUp.com, the feds say. Hunter Moore, 27, and another man alleged to have worked with him were arrested Thursday after being federally indicted on charges of conspiracy, unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information and aggravated identity theft.
An unapologetic poster of naked photos of unconsenting individuals—along with their Facebook profiles—before he sold the site to an anti-bullying group, Moore said he was protected from liability by the Communications Decency Act, Time reports. The magazine provides a link to the indictment (PDF) in the Los Angeles case, which was unsealed Thursday.
The articles don’t include any comment from Moore or his current legal counsel, but a Los Angeles Times article notes that he told the newspaper in a previous interview that photographs posted on his site were submitted anonymously.
If convicted, the two men face maximum five-year prison terms, a FBI press release says.
See also:
ABA Journal: “Victims are taking on ‘revenge porn’ websites for posting photos they didn’t consent to”
Forbes: “How Revenge Porn King Hunter Moore Was Taken Down”
