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2014 celebrity photo leaks
Data leak of private photographs
2014 celebrity nude photo leak
Date
August 31, 2014
2014-08-31
October 27, 2014
2014-10-27
Also known as
Celebgate
The Fappening
Type
Computer hacking
Spear phishing
attack
Target
Celebrities
Verdict
Pleaded guilty
Convictions
Aggravated
identity theft
Christopher Brannan
Unauthorized access
Christopher Brannan
Ryan Collins
George Garofano
Emilio Herrera
Edward Majerczyk
Sentence
Imprisonment
Brannan: 38 months
Collins: 18 months
Garofano: 8 months
Herrera: 16 months
Majerczyk: 9 months
Restitution
costs
Majerczyk:
$5,700
From August 31, 2014 to October 27, 2014, a collection of nearly five hundred sexually explicit private photos and videos were posted online by an anonymous group that called themselves "collectors". The majority of these photos and videos were illegally obtained
sexts
from over a hundred female celebrities that showed the women
topless
naked
, and/or
performing sexual acts
. They were first posted on the imageboard
4chan
, and then swiftly disseminated by other users on websites and social networks such as
Imgur
and
Reddit
. Internet users and media respondents termed the phenomenon "
Celebgate
" or, more popularly, "
The Fappening
".
The images were initially believed to have been obtained via a breach of
Apple
's
cloud services
suite
iCloud
or a security issue in the iCloud
API
which allowed them to make unlimited attempts with guessing victims' passwords.
Apple claimed in a press release that access was gained via
spear phishing
attacks.
The incident was met with varied reactions from the media and fellow celebrities. Critics argued the leak was a major invasion of privacy for the photos' subjects, while some of the alleged subjects denied the images' authenticity. The leak also prompted increased concern from analysts surrounding the privacy and security of cloud computing services such as iCloud—with a particular emphasis on their use to store sensitive, private information.
Origin of the monikers
edit
"The Fappening" is a jocular
portmanteau
coined by combining the words "
fap
", an
internet slang
term for
masturbation
, and the title of the 2008 film
The Happening
. Though the term is a vulgarism originating either with the imageboards where the pictures were initially posted or Reddit, mainstream media outlets soon adopted the term themselves, such as the
BBC
The term has received criticism from journalists like
Radhika Sanghani
of
The Daily Telegraph
and Toyin Owoseje of the
International Business Times
, who said that the term not only trivialized the leak, but also, according to Sanghani, "[made] light of a very severe situation." Both articles used the term extensively to describe the event, including in their headlines.
10
"Celebgate" is a
reference
to the
Watergate scandal
11
Procurement and distribution
edit
The images were obtained via the
online storage
offered by
Apple
's
iCloud
platform for automatically backing up photos from
iOS
devices, such as
iPhones
12
Apple later reported that the victims' iCloud account information was obtained using "a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions", such as
phishing
and
brute-force attack
guessing.
13
It was believed that the images were obtained using an exploit in the
Find My iPhone
service.
12
Court documents from 2014 indicated that one user created a fake email account called "appleprivacysecurity" to ask celebrities for security information.
14
The photos were being passed around privately for at least a couple of weeks before their public release on August 31. Some anonymous imageboard users at the time claimed that unreleased photos and videos exist.
15
The hacker responsible for the leak, who described themselves as being a "collector", distributed the leaked images on the
image boards
4chan
and Anon-IB in exchange for
Bitcoin
16
17
Ultimately, the images were widely circulated online via other channels, including
Imgur
and
Tumblr
. Celebrity gossip blogger
Perez Hilton
also re-posted some of the photos on his blog, but soon took them down and issued an apology, saying he had "acted in bad taste".
18
19
A major center of activity was the link-sharing website
Reddit
20
where a subreddit,
/r/TheFappening
, was created for sharing the photos;
21
in a single day, it amassed over 100,000 followers. Reddit administrators were criticized for allowing this to take place in an alleged violation of their anti-
doxing
rules.
22
23
As
McKayla Maroney
claimed to be under 18 at the time the photos of her were taken, Reddit staff took photos of her down and warned that anyone re-posting them, or underage photos of
Liz Lee
which had been circulating prior to this incident, would be permanently banned from the site and could be prosecuted for distributing
child pornography
24
On September 7, citing copyright issues, Reddit banned /r/TheFappening,
21
25
also saying the workload of dealing with them had become too much.
26
Reddit banned another subreddit named "Fappening" on the same day.
25
Content and affected celebrities
edit
Kate Upton
and
Justin Verlander
(pictured in 2019) confirmed the authenticity of leaked photos.
The original release contained photos and videos of more than 100 individuals that were allegedly obtained from
file storage
on hacked iCloud accounts,
27
including some the leakers claimed were
A-list
celebrities.
28
Shortly after the photos were leaked, several affected celebrities issued statements either confirming or denying the photos' authenticity.
29
Celebrities who confirmed the photos' authenticity include
Jennifer Lawrence
(confirmed by her publicist),
30
Kate Upton
and her husband
Justin Verlander
(confirmed by Upton's lawyer),
31
32
33
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
(confirmed via
),
34
35
Kaley Cuoco
(confirmed via Instagram),
36
37
and
Kirsten Dunst
, who also criticized the iCloud service.
38
Singer
Jill Scott
confirmed on Twitter that one of the leaked photos was of her while stating that another was fake.
39
The perpetrators used
ElcomSoft
tools to download iCloud backups from Apple.
40
41
42
Celebrities who denied the photos' authenticity include
Ariana Grande
43
44
and
Yvonne Strahovski
45
Olympic gymnast
McKayla Maroney
denied the images' authenticity on Twitter,
46
47
but later confirmed the photos were legitimate while also saying she was underage when they were taken.
24
Victoria Justice
denied the photos were authentic but later stated on Twitter that she was pursuing legal action and found the leak to be a massive invasion of not just her privacy, but of the privacy of all celebrities affected by the incident.
43
48
Reports in October indicated that
Nick Hogan
was the first male star to be directly targeted by hackers, though he denied the pictures' authenticity.
49
According to security expert
Nik Cubrilovic
, in addition to the photographs, other personal information such as text messages, calendars, address books, phone call logs and any other data stored on their phones and backed up to the service were also likely stolen.
50
51
On September 20, 2014, a second batch of similar private photos of additional celebrities was leaked by hackers.
52
On September 26, 2014, a third batch was also leaked, which was dubbed "The Fappening 3".
53
54
Then, a fourth and fifth batch were leaked in early and late October 2014.
55
56
57
58
Reactions
edit
Actress
Lena Dunham
pleaded on Twitter for people not to view the photos, arguing that in doing so "you are violating these women over and over again. It's not okay."
59
Actress
Emma Watson
condemned not only the leak but "the accompanying comments [on social media] that show such a lack of empathy."
60
Actors
Seth Rogen
and
Lucas Neff
also spoke out against the hackers and people who posted the pictures.
61
Justin Verlander, then a pitcher for the
Detroit Tigers
, told the media prior to a game against the
Cleveland Indians
that he keeps his private life private and would rather focus on the Tigers' race with the
Kansas City Royals
for the
AL Central
title than be a distraction to his teammates.
62
Security analysts have stated that the breach could have been prevented through the use of
two-factor authentication
63
while a
Forbes
writer recommended completely shutting down the iCloud "Photo Stream" feature (which automatically uploads photos taken with an
iOS
device to iCloud servers).
64
Apple CEO
Tim Cook
(pictured in 2017) announced the company would increase security for iCloud.
In an interview with
The Wall Street Journal
, Apple CEO
Tim Cook
stated that in response to the leak, the company planned to take additional steps to protect the privacy and security of iCloud users in the future.
13
Notifications will be provided whenever data is restored to a device via iCloud and after logging into iCloud via a web browser,
65
in addition to existing notifications when a user's iCloud password is changed. Additionally, Apple will broaden and encourage the use of
two-factor authentication
in future versions of its software and operating systems, such as the then-upcoming
iOS 8
. In conclusion, he emphasized that "we want to do everything we can do to protect our customers, because we are as outraged if not more so than they are".
13
Jennifer Lawrence contacted authorities and her publicist stated that the authorities would prosecute anyone who posted leaked images of her.
66
Forbes
columnist Joseph Steinberg questioned whether the reactions by law enforcement and technology providers indicated that celebrities were being treated differently from ordinary Americans, which, in the case of law enforcement, may be illegal.
67
On October 1, 2014,
Google
was threatened with a $100 million lawsuit by lawyer Martin Singer on behalf of unnamed victims of the leak, alleging that Google had refused to respond to requests for the images to be removed from its platforms (including
Blogger
and
), "[failing] to act expeditiously, and responsibly to remove the images", and "knowingly accommodating, facilitating, and perpetuating the unlawful conduct".
68
69
In an interview with
Vanity Fair
, victim Jennifer Lawrence called the leak a "sex crime" and a "sexual violation"; she added, "Anybody who looked at those pictures, you're perpetuating a sexual offense. You should cower with shame."
70
This view was contrasted by another victim of the leak,
Emily Ratajkowski
, who told
GQ
, "A lot of people who were victims of [the hack] said anyone who looks at these pictures should feel guilty, but I just don't think that's fair", and "I'm not sure that anyone who Googles it is necessarily a criminal. I think the people who stole the photos are".
71
Investigation
edit
The
Federal Bureau of Investigation
said it was "aware of the allegations concerning computer intrusions and the unlawful release of material involving high profile individuals, and is addressing the matter".
72
Similarly, Apple stated that it had been investigating whether a security breach of the iCloud service was responsible for the leaked photographs, as per the company's commitment to user privacy.
63
73
On September 2, 2014, Apple reported that the leaked images were the result of compromised accounts, using "a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet".
In October 2014, the FBI searched a house in
Chicago
, Illinois, and seized several computers, cellphones and storage drives after tracking the source of a hacking attack to an IP address linked to an individual named Emilio Herrera. A related search warrant application mentioned eight unidentified high profile victims. According to law enforcement officials, Herrera was just one of several people under investigation and the FBI carried out various searches across the country.
74
75
Guilty pleas
edit
In March 2016, 36-year-old Ryan Collins of
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
, agreed to plead guilty to one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information resulting in an 18-month sentence.
76
While no victims were named in the court documents, numerous media outlets connected Collins' case to the breach. During the investigation, it was found that Collins phished by sending e-mails to the victims that looked like they had been sent by Apple or Google, warning the victims that their accounts might be compromised and asking for their account details. The victims would enter their passwords, and Collins gained access to their accounts, downloading e-mails and iCloud backups.
77
In October 2016, Collins was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
78
79
In August 2016, 28-year-old Edward Majerczyk of Chicago, agreed to plead guilty to a similar phishing scheme, although authorities believe he worked independently and he was not accused of selling the images or posting them online.
80
81
82
On January 24, 2017, Majerczyk was sentenced to nine months in prison and was ordered to pay
US$5,700
(equivalent to $7,487 in 2025) in restitution to cover the counseling services of one unnamed celebrity victim.
82
Emilio Herrera, also from Chicago, had first been named in the press in 2014;
74
he pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information in October 2017. Herrera had accessed the accounts of unnamed celebrities and others but was not accused of being involved in leaking or sharing the photos and videos he obtained.
83
He was sentenced to 16 months in jail in March 2018.
84
In April 2018, 26-year-old George Garofano of
North Branford, Connecticut
, pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information. Garofano's attorney said he had been led into the phishing scheme by criminals.
84
On August 29, 2018, a federal court sentenced Garofano to eight months in prison.
85
On October 22, 2018, Christopher Brannan, a former Virginia teacher, became the fifth man to be convicted in relation to the hacking. Brannan pled guilty to federal charges of aggravated identity theft and unauthorized access to a protected computer. Through a phishing expedition
further explanation needed
, he hacked more than 200 people. In addition to his celebrity victims, Brannan targeted his underage sister-in-law, as well as teachers and students at the school where he used to teach.
86
Brannan was sentenced to 34 months in prison on March 1, 2019.
87
See also
edit
Edison Chen photo scandal
– 2008 showbiz scandal in Hong Kong
Imagery of nude celebrities
– Topic of visual depiction of nude celebrities
Celebrity sex tape
– Pornographic film of famous people
List of -gate scandals and controversies
– Scandals with the suffix -gate
Sexting
– Sending sexually explicit text messages
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edit
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{{
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unreliable source?
Rogers, Christopher (September 28, 2014).
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the original
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September 17,
2023
Is there no end in sight? A new batch of alleged nude and compromising photos have leaked online in a third attack, dubbed as 'The Fappening 3,' on some of our favorite celebrities, including Anna Kendrick, Brooke Burns and Jennifer Lawrence.
Fourth wave of naked celebrity photos 'released' by hackers
‘The Fappening 4’: More Celeb Nudes Leak Online Including the First Man, Seems to Be Dying Down
‘The Fappening’ Is Dead: From A-List Hacking Victims to D-Listers Accused of Leaking Nudes For PR
Fappening: 5 Young Females Allegedly Join List Of Celebrity Nude Leak Victims
Clark, Cindy (September 1, 2014).
"Lena Dunham asks people not to look at leaked nude photos"
USA Today
Archived
from the original on September 2, 2014
. Retrieved
September 2,
2014
"Emma Watson on Jennifer Lawrence naked photo leak: 'Even worse than seeing women's privacy violated is reading the comments'
The Independent
. September 2, 2014.
Archived
from the original on May 1, 2022
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September 2,
2014
Lubitz, Rachel (September 1, 2014).
"More stars react to the massive celebrity-photo leak"
The Washington Post
Archived
from the original on September 15, 2014
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September 2,
2014
"Justin Verlander addresses scandal"
Cleveland
ESPN
Associated Press
. September 2, 2014.
Archived
from the original on July 18, 2023
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September 17,
2023
Hesseldahl, Arik
(September 1, 2014).
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Re/code
Archived
from the original on September 2, 2014
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September 2,
2014
Kelly, Gordon (January 9, 2014).
"Staying Safe And How To Disable Apple iCloud"
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from the original on September 3, 2014
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September 2,
2014
Brandom, Russell (September 8, 2014).
"Apple just added another layer of iCloud security, a day before iPhone 6 event"
The Verge
Archived
from the original on April 20, 2023
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June 26,
2023
"FBI, Apple begin inquiries into nude celebrity photo leaks"
Los Angeles
Fox News
. September 1, 2014.
Archived
from the original on December 9, 2015
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April 12,
2023
Steinberg, Joseph (August 31, 2014).
"Nude Photos Of Jennifer Lawrence And Kate Upton Leak: Five Important Lessons For All of Us"
Forbes
Archived
from the original on September 1, 2014
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September 2,
2014
Patten, Dominic (October 2, 2014).
"Google Responds To $100M Lawsuit Threat Over Hacked Celeb Photos: 'We've Removed Tens Of Thousands Of Pictures' – UPDATE"
Deadline Hollywood
Archived
from the original on April 19, 2023
. Retrieved
November 28,
2023
Hern, Alex; Rushe, Dominic (October 2, 2014).
"Google threatened with $100m lawsuit over nude celebrity photos"
The Guardian
ISSN
1756-3224
OCLC
60623878
Archived
from the original on July 18, 2023
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April 13,
2024
Firm threatened with lawsuit over failure to remove hacked photos from subsidiaries including YouTube and BlogSpot
"Cover Exclusive: Jennifer Lawrence Calls Photo Hacking a 'Sex Crime'
Vanity Fair
. October 7, 2014.
ISSN
0733-8899
Archived
from the original on July 26, 2024
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September 3,
2024
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CBS News
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Archived
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April 12,
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Business Insider
Archived
from the original on September 4, 2014
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September 2,
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(June 10, 2015).
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OCLC
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May 16,
2025
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Ryan Collins will plead guilty to violating Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and prosecutors will recommend a sentence of 18 months, prosecutors said.
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Ryan Collins ran a two-year phishing scam to gain the passwords of more than 100 people, including Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna and Avril Lavigne
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August 25,
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Further reading
edit
Romero, Angie (September 1, 2014).
"Full list of celebrities affected by nude photo leak"
Variety
ISSN
0042-2738
OCLC
810134503
Archived
from the original on April 15, 2023
. Retrieved
June 26,
2023
Hacking in the 2010s
2000s
Timeline of security hacking incidents
Timeline of computer viruses and worms
2020s
Major incidents
2010
Operation Aurora
(publication of 2009 events)
Australian cyberattacks
Operation Olympic Games
Operation ShadowNet
Operation Payback
2011
Canadian government
DigiNotar
DNSChanger
HBGary Federal
Operation AntiSec
PlayStation network outage
RSA SecurID compromise
2012
LinkedIn hack
Stratfor email leak
Operation High Roller
2013
South Korea cyberattack
Snapchat hack
Cyberterrorism attack of June 25
2013 Yahoo! data breach
Singapore cyberattacks
2014
Anthem medical data breach
Operation Tovar
2014 celebrity nude photo leak
2014 JPMorgan Chase data breach
2014 Sony Pictures hack
Russian hacker password theft
2014 Yahoo! data breach
2015
Office of Personnel Management data breach
HackingTeam
Ashley Madison data breach
TalkTalk data breach
VTech data breach
Ukrainian Power Grid Cyberattack
SWIFT banking hack
2016
Bangladesh Bank robbery
Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center ransomware incident
Commission on Elections data breach
Democratic National Committee cyber attacks
Vietnam Airport Hacks
DCCC cyber attacks
Indian Bank data breaches
Surkov leaks
Dyn cyberattack
Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections
2016 Bitfinex hack
2017
SHAttered
2017 Macron e-mail leaks
WannaCry ransomware attack
Westminster data breach
Petya and NotPetya
2017 Ukraine ransomware attacks
Equifax data breach
Deloitte breach
Disqus breach
2018
Trustico
Atlanta cyberattack
British Airways data breach
SingHealth data breach
2019
Sri Lanka cyberattack
Baltimore ransomware attack
Bulgarian revenue agency hack
WhatsApp snooping scandal
Jeff Bezos phone hacking incident
Hacktivism
Anonymous
associated events
CyberBerkut
GNAA
Goatse Security
Lizard Squad
LulzRaft
LulzSec
New World Hackers
NullCrew
OurMine
PayPal 14
RedHack
Teamp0ison
TDO
UGNazi
Ukrainian Cyber Alliance
Groups
Appin
Bangladesh Black Hat Hackers
Bureau 121
Charming Kitten
Cozy Bear
Dark Basin
DarkMatter
Elfin Team
Equation Group
Fancy Bear
GOSSIPGIRL
(confederation)
Guccifer 2.0
Hacking Team
Helix Kitten
Iranian Cyber Army
Islamic State Hacking Division
Lazarus Group
BlueNorOff
AndAriel
Lords of Dharmaraja
NSO Group
Numbered Panda
PLA Unit 61398
PLA Unit 61486
PLATINUM
Pranknet
Red Apollo
Rocket Kitten
Stealth Falcon
Syrian Electronic Army
Tailored Access Operations
The Shadow Brokers
xDedic
Yemen Cyber Army
Individuals
Ryan Ackroyd
Mustafa Al-Bassam
Kim Anh Vo
George Hotz
Guccifer
Elliott Gunton
Jeremy Hammond
Sam Hocevar
Junaid Hussain
MLT
Sabu
Track2
Topiary
The Jester
Major
vulnerabilities
publicly
disclosed
Evercookie
(2010)
iSeeYou
(2013)
Heartbleed
(2014)
Shellshock
(2014)
POODLE
(2014)
Rootpipe
(2014)
Row hammer
(2014)
SS7 vulnerabilities
(2014)
WinShock
(2014)
JASBUG
(2015)
Stagefright
(2015)
DROWN
(2016)
Badlock
(2016)
Dirty COW
(2016)
Cloudbleed
(2017)
Broadcom Wi-Fi
(2017)
EternalBlue
(2017)
DoublePulsar
(2017)
Silent Bob is Silent
(2017)
KRACK
(2017)
ROCA vulnerability
(2017)
BlueBorne
(2017)
Meltdown
(2018)
Spectre
(2018)
EFAIL
(2018)
Exactis
(2018)
Speculative Store Bypass
(2018)
Lazy FP state restore
(2018)
TLBleed
(2018)
SigSpoof
(2018)
Foreshadow
(2018)
Dragonblood
(2019)
Microarchitectural Data Sampling
(2019)
BlueKeep
(2019)
Kr00k
(2019)
Malware
2010
Bad Rabbit
Black Energy 2
Blackshades
Coreflood
Kelihos
Stuxnet
2011
Citadel
Andromeda
Alureon
Duqu
Gameover ZeuS
Metulji botnet
Stars
ZeroAccess botnet
2012
Alina
Carna
Dexter
Dridex
FBI MoneyPak
Flame
Grum
Mahdi
Red October
Shamoon
2013
BlackPOS
CryptoLocker
DarkSeoul
Havex
2014
Brambul
Black Energy 3
Carbanak
Careto
DarkHotel
Duqu 2.0
Emotet
FinFisher
Gameover ZeuS
Kronos
Regin
2015
CenterPOS
Hidden Tear
Kasidet
Rombertik
TeslaCrypt
Project Sauron
2016
FastPOS
Hitler
Industroyer
Jigsaw
KeRanger
Locky
Necurs
MEMZ
Mirai
Pegasus
Petya and NotPetya
Philadelphia
X-Agent
2017
BrickerBot
Kirk
LogicLocker
Rensenware
Triton
WannaCry
Xafecopy
2018
Annabelle
Joanap
VPNFilter
2019
R2D2
Tiny Banker
Titanium
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2014 controversies in the United States
2014 in computing
2014 in Internet culture
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2010s in hacking
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Obscenity controversies in photography
Privacy controversies
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