Rare News Desk
The Internet is particularly disappointing this week. It’s not 4chan or the seedy underbellies of Reddit that are perpetuating the latest bout of nastiness though.
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This time at least, it’s coming from people who should know better.
The facts in question are pretty simple. A young woman – my age, in fact – was among several young women victimized in a deeply personal crime. Whether or not she is famous is irrelevant.
We can’t expect much from some online subcultures or certain people. But while this story might have originated from the creepy corners of the web, it was perpetuated and fostered by a culture of “regular,” otherwise ethical people.
Sure, on face value, celebrity changes things a little. Legal precedent, for instance, tends to make it harder to prosecute defamation or libel against public figures. There’s obviously a larger market and higher demand for nude celebrity photos like these. And being famous does imply a different expectation of privacy when it comes to certain things.
Jennifer Lawrence and the other young women in question did not choose to expose themselves to the public, however.
Let’s be clear: If someone transmits compromising photos to another person who then sends them along to other people without consent, that is still very wrong. Whether the person is world-famous or just another person doesn’t matter. Doing so involves violating person and property.
But these women didn’t even send these photos to anyone! In at least one case, the photographs were taken in the actress’ own home for her husband. These pictures were – apparently – stolen from hacked, private Apple iCloud accounts, and then spread to the public.
This is not a status quo worth accepting, whether the victims are famous or not.
The justification for sharing and viewing the stolen content ranged from countless viral posts and articles placing blame on the victims apparently for having, well, any private material in the first place – to mainstream journalists all but linking to the stolen pictures with a wink and a nod.
In an age where there is increasing concern about privacy violations from both government and private companies, this blasé attitude toward such violative crimes should bother everyone, famous or not.
While the choice to save private photos on the Cloud might be questionable, the choice to perpetuate stealing and spreading personal information is certainly not.
Beyond the ethical issues, remember that this type of reprehensible behavior almost inevitably leads to legal action and government involvement – that comes with the unintended consequence of restricting rights today and causing a chilling effect on free speech in the future.
As the Internet and smartphone generation grows up, more and more people – from actresses to students to professionals and everyone in between – have aspects of their digital lives that they want to keep private.
And whether it’s the NSA, creeps on the Internet, or simply people who watch from the sidelines, violating that right to privacy is inexcusable.
