Today in news that’ll make you want to set the ‘reset’ button on the human race, it’s been reported that some slimy creeps have hacked into Demi Lovato’s Snapchat account and are leaking nude phoots.
As the Los Angeles Times shares, the hackers shared a link to Lovato’s Snap Story asking followers to: “Join this discord server for my nudes.”
They then shared a collection of naked photos. It has not been confirmed if these are of Lovato or not – but it is believed they picture the musician. With that said, their authenticity really doesn’t take away from the huge violation of privacy the 27-year-old is experiencing.
Discord released a statement on the abusive act, stating that they disabled the link as quickly as possible.
“We have a zero-tolerance approach to illegal activity on our platform and take immediate action when we become aware of it,” they said.
However, shutting down the link within the space of an hour has done little to stop the appalling spread of these images. People still managed to click through, and a number of them took screenshots of the photos; propelling the abuse further.
Now, we’re all in agreement (I bloody hope we are) that taking leaking nude photos and sharing them without their consent is never okay. It’s illegal, and as I’ve said a number of times already, it’s abusive.
In cases like Lovato’s, the misogynistic performance works to shame women for their sexuality and to assert a level of power over them. It’s absolutely reprehensible.
But I think we need to talk about another inappropriate action, here: viewing these photos. Because if no one clicked through to view Lovato’s alleged nudes, the hacker would have achieved nothing.
Seeking out illegally-sourced intimate photos of women (or anyone, for that matter) supports the people who are intending to harm them. Doing this communicates that you don’t care about the violation these people, who are usually women, are experiencing. How does that sit with you?
And the argument that “they’re already out there, what’s one more click?” is just not good enough. You’re not entitled to this woman’s body, just because a creep has been leaking nude photos.
Let’s do a little better and avoid this toxic behaviour, yeah?