I can see your privacy settings. (Via Getty Images)
Redditor johnsmcjohn is sad. Out of the charitable goodness of his heart, he donated his time and energy into creating and moderating a reddit forum dedicated to the purveyance of illicitly acquired nude celebrity photos. He called it: "The Fappening," and it became the most viewed forum on the site when it posted links to hacked photos of nude celebrities, notably of Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton.
Eventually, reddit dismantled the forum, a event that angered johnsmcjohn, saying, "I created /r/TheFappening on Sunday. A quarter billion page views and 27 days of reddit gold later it got banned. Not because it violated site rules, because it got too many DMCA takedowns. Reddit is all for free speech until it is inconvenient for them."
Who was this strongly principled man? The Washington Post did some deep-digging to find out more about the man responsible for rescuing those nude photos from the 4chan troll dungeon and bring them into the light of the public eye.
In an ironic desire to protect some of his privacy, The Post pulled a couple punches and chose not to reveal his real name or social media accounts, but they did draw a detailed description of the 33-year-old. The article included trouble with his finances, his belief that he is struggling with undiagnosed Aspergers, and his identification as an asexual who is "not attracted" to people.
The irony of johnsmcjohn being an asexual who gained fame from others' nudity didn't escape The Post—they blame his motives on the desire for power— although the undiagnosed Aspergers could reasonably explain his inability to empathize with how these leaks would make those celebrities feel.
Whether or not johnsmcjohn has the ability to empathize, he definitely has the capacity for feeling... for himself.
In a reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), John invited redditors to ask him about the experience of starting reddit's most popular forum and its resulting backlash and removal.
The first question listed (due to its popularity) was asked by immorta1, "How do you feel about the washington post [sic] basically trying to dox you?"
In layman's, "how does it feel to be a hacker who got hacked?"
John responded like he knew his privacy had been jeaopardized, saying, "I decided Thursday that I wouldn't delete my account and if the press wants to send me thru the ringer, so be it. I won't be bullied into silence."
We are, after all, talking about a man who prizes, above anything else, his right to free speech.
But then, when The Post story went to print, John was disturbed. Someone didn't like being stripped bare for the world to see. Indeed, it made him sad.
"It makes me sad," he wrote in the AMA, "because she focused on my financial troubles when they aren't related to the sub at all. Yes. I had an issue paying my bills. How exactly does that deal with this sub???"
With regard to the other, more personal details they revealed, he wrote, "That was the worst part of the article for me. Why is my being on an asexuality website or an Aspergers board relevant to my work on /r/TheFappening??? It wasn't. At all."
One could just as easily ask how violating a person's privacy by posting nude photos relates to free speech. He created that forum for sharing stolen photos because the photos were interesting. The Post wrote those details about him because they were interesting. The only reason why he finds it offensive now is because now he is the victim. Now, he is sad.
Despite this, after all the backlash, after the countless conversations about whether or not it is right to post or even look at these photos, even after the infamy of the incident brought his own troubles to light, John said that the only thing he would have done differently is try a little harder to protect his privacy.
(Via)
(by Myka Fox)