Comedian Leslie Jones, who was recently harassed online by gay right-wing bully Milo Yiannopoulos, had her website hacked today by attackers who released private nude photos of her, according to multiple news sources.
The hackers placed a video of the gorilla Harambe at the top of her website to mock Jones, who is black. In addition to the nude images, they also released pictures of her driver's license and passport. Her website has since been taken down. According to TMZ, the hacker gained access to the images through Jones's phone or iCloud account.
This is not the first time stolen nude photos have been used in an attempt to humiliate female celebrities. Stars like Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton have had their intimate images stolen. Women across the country may find nude images of themselves available for public consumption after a nasty breakup, as one activist and victim recently told Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The phenomenon has been termed revenge porn, and legislators are seeking to pass laws banning the nonconsensual transmission of pornographic images.
While men (like Hulk Hogan) may also be victims of revenge porn, perhaps because society tends to view naked men as humorous and nude women as humilated, women are often preferred targets.
Jones has not yet spoken about this most recent attack, but when asked about her experience with revenge porn in a Vanity Fair interview, Lawrence said, "It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime." Lawrence, who has been outspoken about disparities in pay between male and female actors, said what happened to her is "a sexual violation. It's disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change."
Congresswoman Jackie Speier introduced legislation last month that would target those who share and profit from nonconsensually shared images.
"Technology today makes it possible to destroy a person's life with the click of a button or a tap on a cell phone," Speier, a Democrat from Northern California, said in a news release. "That is all anyone needs to broadcast another person's private images without their consent. The damage caused by these attacks can crush careers, tear apart families, and, in the worst cases, has led to suicide."
When the images of Lawrence were released, she told Vanity Fair, "Anybody who looked at those pictures, you're perpetuating a sexual offense. You should cower with shame. Even people who I know and love say, 'Oh, yeah, I looked at the pictures.' I don't want to get mad, but at the same time I'm thinking, I didn't tell you that you could look at my naked body."
It is unclear what if any legal action Jones will take. During her most recent fight against cyberbullying, she was able to get Breitbart's Milo Yiannopoulos banned from Twitter for life.
While Jones had privately combated cyberbullying, her public fight against it began in the days surrounding the release of the female-centric remake of Ghostbusters, in which she starred along side other talented female actresses. The film received a significant amount of protest from male Ghostbusters fans who felt inexplicably offended by the remake.
It is not known what motivated the recent attack on Jones.
