Netflix's latest true crime docuseries follows the man once known as "the most hated man on the internet." The three-part series of the same name details the exploits of Hunter Moore, who founded of a website that brought the concept of revenge porn to the mainstream and was unrepentant about ruining people's lives while he made a profit.
In the Netflix documentary, which comes from the makers of Tinder Swindler and Don't F**k With Cats, we hear from Moore's victims, law enforcement officers, the activists who helped take him down, and even his former girlfriend. While the events took place a decade ago, Moore's horrible legacy has both unfortunately continued through internet trolling culture, and fortunately led to state laws banning nonconsensual porn.
IsAnyoneUp was Moore's infamous website. Founded in the early 2010s and lasting for 16 months, the site was known for posting naked pictures of people along with their names and professions, their social media accounts, and sometimes their addresses. According to the doc, the site started out posting volunteers from "scene" communities before mutating into a revenge porn site that posted nude images given by other people without the subject's consent.
As told by the women who were posted on the site, Moore did not care that he was ruining their lives. He refused to take photos down, while racking in thousands in advertising and other fees. According to the doc, the site hit the mainstream when Moore appeared in an episode of Anderson Cooper's daytime talk show, where he showed no remorse while facing two women who were posted on the site. Throughout the site's run, Moore was beloved by his cult-like followers, called "The Family," who would party with him, send threats to people who went up against him, and applaud his every move on social media.
Did Hunter Moore go to prison?
Despite the efforts of the people who were posted on the site against their will, there wasn't a specific law against what Moore was doing in the early 2010s. Instead, law enforcement agents found something with Hunter's scheme to charge him on: hacking. Early in the doc, we are introduced to Charlotte Laws, whose daughter Kayla Laws was posted on the site. It turned out that Kayla never sent her nude photos to anyone else; they only existed in her email account, which was hacked soon before she was posted on IsAnyoneUp.
In addition to her efforts to get Kayla's pictures taken down, Charlotte began communicating with other women whose photos were posted. She discovered a pattern where some of the victims' photos could only have been accessed through hacking, since they never sent them to anyone. The mom took her findings to the FBI, and through an investigation, law enforcement found that Moore did have an accomplice who he paid to hack women's accounts.
In January 2014, Moore was arrested on charges of conspiracy, unauthorized access to a protected computer (a.k.a. hacking), and aggravated identity theft. He pled guilty to reduced charges in February 2015, and was sentenced with two years and six months in prison.
Is IsAnyoneUp still on the Internet?
IsAnyoneUp met its demise in 2012, thanks to the efforts of a former Marine and anti-bullying activist named James McGibney, who appears in the doc. After learning about the site, McGibney built a relationship with Moore and used his access to trick Moore into selling him the site. Upon gaining access, he redirected the site to his own, called BullyVille.com, and posted a public letter to Moore explaining why he took down the ultimate bully.
"Your main stated objective was to 'ruin' young girls' lives. Even after they indicated that they were going to commit suicide if their unauthorized naked images weren’t removed from your website, you laughed in their faces," wrote. "Are you still laughing now? You tried to destroy their lives, but instead, I intellectually destroyed yours."
Where is Hunter Moore now?
Moore was released from prison in May 2017. In the same month, Substream Magazine wrote that the ex-convict had joined a re-acclimation program and re-gained the internet, briefly releasing EDM music. One year later he self-published a tell-all book called Is Anyone Up?!: The Story of Revenge Porn.
Since 2018, Moore has kept a very low profile and there doesn't appear to be any social media accounts under his name (he's also been banned from Facebook for over a decade). He was initially tapped to participate in the Netflix docuseries, but he later refused to appear.
Where is Charlotte Laws now?
Following IsAnyoneUp's shuttering, Laws told her side of the story in a 2013 Jezebelarticle and her book Rebel in High Heels, which was released in April 2015. She has become an anti-revenge-porn activist, serving as a board member of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative until 2018 and working with legislators to propose laws protecting victims of nonconsensual pornography.
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