As in the case of Hunter Moore and his Revenge Porn, Danny believes that the cycle of revenge will nearly always drag innocent people under.
Back in March I did a post on Hunter Moore. For those of you who do not know Moore up until fairly recently operated a site called isanyoneup.com. The site was a forum in which people could submit sexual, lewd, or otherwise inappropriate pictures of people. Along with these photos, actual identifying information such as real name, location, and online aliases were published as well. The purpose of the site? To give people a chance to get back at those that harmed them.
Moore’s site was what many call a “revenge porn” site. Revenge porn is the public (mostly online) distribution of images of people with the sole purpose of humiliating the subject in order to get back at them for something that person did. After being hurt himself in the past (heart broken by a girlfriend and sexually assaulted by a male coworker) it seemed like Moore had emptied his heart out and decided to open a venue in which he would profit from revenge.
But revenge is rarely that simple. Often times when it comes to righting a wrong (or maybe acting out an overwhelming desire that things had gone differently) the damage is not always limited to the ones who are targeted. It is the never-ending chase to satisfy feelings of pain in a way that usually prove empty and meaningless. Even if we aren’t destroyed in said chase, innocent bystanders can very easily get caught up in the mix.
For example, when Moore was running his site he had issues with people trying to submit images of under-aged children to his site (which is also part of why he sold the site to the anti-bullying site Bullyville). Even though he appears to have been diligent about not allowing it through and reporting it to authorities, there is no guarantee that he nothing inappropriate or illegal was published.
Also, can it honestly be said that all the people who were displayed on isanyoneup really did something to the person that submitted the picture? Could it be that in some cases submitting photos to Moore’s site was not an act of revenge but rather the first strike against another person, who then may have gone on to search for their own revenge?
It is extremely easy for a thirst for revenge to get out of hand and hurt people who had nothing to do with the original offense.
People say that the way to defeat hate (and there is no doubt revenge is a variation of hate) is with love. But how do you get a person poisoned by hate to see, feel, and find the love that will treat the poison and ease their pain?
As it stands now, it looks like Moore may have had less-than-honest motives for selling the isanyoneup site. According to the tech site Gizmodo, it looks like he may be under investigation by the FBI.
Is it possible that Hunter sold the site not because he was trying to move on past all the pain, but because he was trying to get the stink of Internet crimes off of him?
The thing about reputations being “ruined” is that the more and more this happens, the less damaging it SHOULD get. When more and more people openly share their sexuality it becomes less of a worry because it isn’t the case of the rare person in a sea of conservative minds but just yet another in an endless supply of such imagery. If 50% of your co-workers had nudes of them flying around, or we knew that they took nudes for their partner then who honestly would care? The big problem really is how we treat nudity in our society, why… Read more »
Revenge is definitely unhealthy. There’s no question that people are better off moving on, rather than dwelling. However, given that the majority of the targets of the site were female, there is a kind of poetic justice when compared with the revenge often sought by women against men in the court system. Court records are usually made public, so the exact problems that Danny describes about name and personal information along with allegations being published; well, welcome to the court system. This doesn’t make it right, and it’s important to note that the people uploading photos are harming themselves by… Read more »
The thing is…a large amount of the women who were affected by this were probably just ex girlfriends who left the guy, rejected his advances, found a new partner too quickly, or cheated. Or slept with some girl’s crush or boyfriend or something. Who’s to say that they ever took any of it to court, much less purposely made it public? Or did anything they did with malicious intent? Why should what some random lady is doing in court ruin THEIR lives? I’ve never personally dealt with the court system in this manner, but I will agree that it sounds… Read more »
Just to clarify while most of the revenge pics were of women a lot of them were of men too. In fact some of them had messages attached talking about how “he was probably gay anyway”. Hell hath no fury indeed.
Aya, If only what you say were true. Unfortunately there is also “no going back” when you lose your children because your wife told a judge that you yelled at her: true story, look it up. I agree that in both instances it’s wrong, we don’t help ourselves by seeking harmful revenge. Nonetheless, this website is the target of an FBI investigation, and men have yet to receive any protection from false allegations made against them using the court system. Keep in mind, this isn’t just about custody battles either. The Duke Lacrosse team lost scholarships, tuition, and a year… Read more »
@ Mike L
With the court system you have the potential for impartiality. In Illinois father’s rights activists were able to finally get interference with visitation criminalized. One of the reasons the feminist lobby here gave for opposing it was that women could no longer keep abusive fathers from their children when in fact it was because women would have to prove that the children’s fathers were abusive to keep them away. This site is not quite the court system.
How would you even know that the pictures are legitimate? They could be Photoshopped.
I would have to tell all my future employers about my mentally disturbed, socially inappropriate twin brother. I’m responsible for his care, and he’s actually a very sweet guy, but the medications haven’t always worked…..
That’s a problem in and of itself. They could be. But good luck convincing someone that they are and even if they are and its proven they are there will almost certainly be a seed of lingering doubt. And with employers they could very well just say, “We can’t afford to take a chance that it is true.”
I saw a few moments ago that someone tweeted a link to this post asking about who said, “Revenge is drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die”. Honestly I don’t think that’s a fitting analogy.
I think revenge is more like a suicide bomb. Sure you might actually hurt the person that hurt you but in the process you will certainly destroy yourself and stand a good chance of hurting innocent people.
I guess it depends on whether you’ve spent time in Australia building up an immunity to iocane powder :-p
My impression is that young people today are doing their best to make revenge pictures completely unnecessary. If you look at what people *voluntarily* share about themselves on social media, and how much they willingly pose for cameras in unflattering situations, you’ll start to wonder why a revenge pic site would ever get any traction. Besides, any embarrassment would be very broad but entirely superficial. Your embarrassing pictures would be all that anyone is talking about for, what, about 10 minutes? 10 minutes before the goldfish-level attention span turns to something else and your scandalous photos are yesterday’s news.
Besides, any embarrassment would be very broad but entirely superficial. Your embarrassing pictures would be all that anyone is talking about for, what, about 10 minutes? 10 minutes before the goldfish-level attention span turns to something else and your scandalous photos are yesterday’s news. Until a potential employer does an online search of you years later and finds it. Its one thing for someone to put up suggestive photos themselves but its quite another for someone else to do it. And that is how a revenge pic site would get traction. There are a lot of people out there that… Read more »
Good point. I hadn’t thought about the employer perspective.
In addition to employers, think about parents. There are certain things that I’m not personally ashamed of or think are wrong morally, but I’d certainly not want my conservative mother to see–it would break her heart and put a strain on our relationship. Then there are those judgmental ‘friends’ and co-workers you can’t really avoid. It might not be life shattering, but having to deal with their smug judgment, holier than though attitude, and even threats can really make for a stressful life.
*holier than thou