“Even worse than seeing women’s privacy violated on social media is reading the accompanying comments that show such a lack of empathy,” Emma Watson tweeted on Sept. 1 in response to the hacking of a number of female celebrities’ private nude photos, according to The Huffington Post.
The photos were allegedly retrieved from iCloud and posted online on Sunday, Aug. 31. Some of the celebrities whose photos were taken are Jennifer Lawrence, Ariana Grande, Victoria Justice, Kirsten Dunst, Kate Upton, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Mckayla Maroney, according to Fox News. Some of the women have claimed that the photos of them are fakes and some have acknowledged that theirs are in fact real. Ariana Grande was quick to say hers were fake in this statement she made, “to every1 going on about my ‘nudes’ & my ‘m&g prices’ neither are real! my lil ass is a lot cuter than that lmao & tour details r comin soon,” according to Fox News.
Whereas a representative for Jennifer Lawrence confirmed that the pictures of her were real and made the following statement to Fox News, “The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence.” Fake or not, the FBI is taking this issue very seriously and has already launched an investigation in hopes of finding the person or people responsible, according to The Huffington Post. 
A popular response to this obvious invasion of privacy has been that if these ladies did not want their nude photos leaked they never should have taken them. Peggy Drexley, a writer for CNN commented, “Certainly, the surest way to avoid ever having your most private photos shared publicly is to not take them in the first place,” according to The Washington Post. What an absurd reaction to such a serious issue.
That’s like saying if you don’t want to get in a car crash then don’t get in a car and drive. There are plenty of men and women, including myself, that have exchanged nude photos with their significant other or their spouse. It’s a completely normal thing to do, and it is legal. What is not legal is hacking into someone’s personal space and taking things that were intended to stay private. These women did nothing wrong and should not be blamed for the hacking of their private photos.
Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple Inc., said that the company is in the process of investigating whether any iCloud accounts had been tampered with. “We take user privacy very seriously and are actively investigating this report,” she said to The Huffington Post.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead was one of the celebrities that also confirmed that her photos were real. “To those of you looking at photos I took with my husband years ago in the privacy of our home, hope you feel great about yourselves,” Winstead posted on Twitter. Winstead continued to share that she had destroyed those photos years ago, and that she could only imagine the “creepy effort” that went into finding them.
Security Researcher Ken Westin posted in his blog on Monday saying, “It is important for celebrities and the general public to remember that images and data no longer just reside on the device that captured it,” according to The Huffington Post. “Once images and other data are uploaded to the cloud, it becomes much more difficult to control who has access to it, even if we think it is private.” This statement is very true and should serve as a warning to those of us that do share nude photos, but it still doesn’t make these women responsible for the hacker’s actions.
Of course, this is not the first time that private photos of celebrities have been hacked. The FBI has investigated previous leaks involving Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, Christina Aguilera, and a video of television sports reporter Erin Andrews in a Tennessee hotel room. All of those cases resulted in the conviction of those responsible. As they should have.
The kind of emotional damage that such a major invasion of privacy can do to someone is enormous and should in no way be taken lightly. Some have suggested that Jennifer Lawrence specifically should just shrug it off and own her nude pictures. “What’s tight about Jennifer Lawrence is she’ll own it, make some funny comment, destigmatize the nude leak and keep getting money,” Ernest Baker posted on Twitter, according to The Daily Beast.
I have a question for you Baker, would you just want to shake it off after someone invaded something in your life so private as nude photos? I didn’t think so. The fact that these females are taking action is showing that this kind of invasion of privacy will not be tolerated. That is the kind of message that needs to be sent. Shrugging it off would not be “tight,” and it would do nothing to prevent things like this from happening in the future.
I look forward to the conviction of the person or people responsible for these horrible actions. These celebrities, just like any female or male, have every right to share their body with whomever they want, but what makes that so sacred is that it should be their choice and no one else’s. To the hacker that took that choice from them, I hope you’re the one that’s ashamed after leaking these photos because you’re the only one that should be.
Caitlin Malone can be reached at caitlin.malone@spartans.ut.edu