On August 31st a slew of provocative pictures of countless celebrities were leaked over the internet. The list had over 100 celebrities on it, primarily female including Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lawence, Lea Michele, Kate Upton and Kirsten Dunst.
According to The Guardian the pictures were first leaked onto a website called 4chan. The pictures were then spread around the internet through screenshots, however the original person that posted the pictures then took them shortly after they posted them. The New York Times has called 4chan.org “One of the darkest corners of the web.”
4chan users operate completely anonymously. The FBI is “addressing the matter” according The Washington Post. There are no confirmed leads on who is behind leaking these photos, however reports from security researchers have pointed to Bryan Hamade, 27 according to BuzzFeed News.
In a recent interview with BuzzFeed Hamade denied the claims and since has been harassed by 4chan users because of the accusations being made.
Although not confirmed, the photos may have been obtained through iCloud. People are now questioning the privacy and security of iCloud because of the recent events.
Since the pictures have been leaked, celebrities are firing back by either saying that the pictures of them are fake or that the public shouldn’t have even seen them in the first place.
Victoria Justice reacted by going to Twitter to address the matter “These so called nudes of me are FAKE people. Let me nip this in the bud right now. *pun intended*.”
Ariana Grande also shed some light on the matter on her Twitter account. Grande tweeted “To every1 going on about my “nudes” & my “m&g prices” neither are real! my lil a** is a lot cuter than that lmao & tour details r coming soon”
