Months ago, Kevin Bollart from San Diego, California was arrested on revenge porn charges: identity theft, extortion, conspiracy. The United States is cracking down on revenge porn, and now another one goes to jail.
Earlier this week, Hunter Moore, 28, pleaded guilty to revenge porn related charges, including identity theft and aiding and abetting. Moore now faces over five years in prison. His co-defendant, Charles ‘Gary’ Evens, has also been charged. Evens allegedly stole nude photos from victims and made $200 a week from it. By the time of their arrests last year, hundreds of emails were compromised and many nude photos came from disgruntle exes in the name of revenge. Hunter Moore’s website was called IsAnybodyUp. He was inspired by Bollart’s revenge porn scheme, which allowed people to put up other people’s nude, sexually explicit, or other embarrassing photos on their site, for a small fee, without the victim’s knowledge or approval. Moore’s website and reputation became so notorious Rolling Stone magazine called him the most hated man on the Internet. Here is the part that struck me the most: Hunter Moore’s IsAnybodyUp made up to $10,000 a month in ad revenue alone. This revenge porn site got an estimated 30 million views.
There lies the problem. The fact that a revenge porn site got this much money and this many reviews is disturbing. If the demand for such filth is this great, we’re going to see more Hunter Moore’s and Kevin Bollart’s in the future. I’m happy laws and governments are doing something to combat revenge porn. But it starts with us as the consumer. When we stop logging on to such sites that violate peoples’ basic rights and scar them for life, maybe they’ll get the message. When we boycott advertisers that support revenge websites and tell these advertisers why we’re boycotting them, maybe they’ll get the message. Hopefully, Bollart, Moore and Evens are getting that message now. Will this help to prevent the next revenge pornographer?