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'The Most Hated Man on the Internet' Addresses Fighting 'Revenge Porn' Site

2022-07-28T09:03:02.444Z


Who is Hunter Moore, 'The Most Hated Man on the Internet'? Netflix tells it in a documentary series


(CNN) --

"The Most Hated Man on the Internet" faces a bit of a logistical problem: how to visually represent the kind of photos that were posted by "revenge porn" site IsAnyoneUp.com. without invading people's privacy again.

By approaching it creatively, the producers deliver a highly watchable yet raunchy three-part docu-series, driven by their perfect-for-TV, easy-to-hate villain.

That would clearly be Hunter Moore, who rose to notoriety in the 2010s by publicly reveling in his bad boy image while posting explicit photos of people (mostly women) without their permission.

The posts were linked to Facebook and other personal accounts and compounded the bullying and abuse by prompting fans of the site to mock and ridicule those in the images.

Pleas to remove the photos, politely or not, were scoffed at, leaving little recourse for those whose lives were changed.

  • He was a victim of revenge porn and now leads a crusade against it

At least at the beginning.

Because "The Most Hated Man on the Internet" (the headline of a 2012 Rolling Stone article on Hunter Moore) also comes with its own heroine, Charlotte Laws, who turned Moore's actions by posting unauthorized photos of her daughter Kayla on a personal crusade, contacting other victims and lobbying the authorities until she found someone, anyone, to take up the cause and take action.

Director Rob Miller peppers the documentary series with testimonies from people whose privacy was invaded, using words like "raped" and "humiliated," as well as law enforcement officials who, armed with revelations about photos that were hacked and not simply provided by some angry ex, they were finally able to bring charges against Moore.

The producers approximated the photos with the help of participants from an adult website to illustrate how intrusive and explicit they were.

Charlotte Laws in the Netflix docuseries 'The Most Hated Man on the Internet'.

"The Most Hated Man on the Internet" resonates primarily as a warning about Internet trolling by an early practitioner and self-proclaimed "ruiner of professional lives."

However, while Laws' tireless efforts to remove Kayla's photos and then the entire site give the project heroic ground, the series also contains a warning about the double-edged sword of the media microscope.

In that sense, Hunter Moore proved to be his worst enemy, harming himself through his smiley interviews and his public persona, including a particularly callous appearance on CNN host Anderson Cooper's syndicated talk show in 2011. .

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  • Mayor of Maryland city charged with 50 counts of distribution of revenge porn

The most disturbing aspect of the story, meanwhile, might be the rabid nature of Moore's online supporters, which included not only harassing those on the site but making threats against Laws and others who might speak out.

Again, he feels like a precursor to the armies of followers that some personalities command, and the way the network can magnify even the smallest groups with a digital megaphone.

Netflix has enjoyed considerable success with a certain vaguely seedy subgenre of docuseries, "The Tinder Swindler" and "Our Father" among them, and "The Most Hated Man on the Internet" falls squarely into that category.

Like some of those projects, this one offers a sense of catharsis and uplift in Laws' determination to see justice done.

As for the fact that the title is dedicated to the troll, consider that dynamic that the squeaky wheel gets greased is a sign of the times, both then and now.

"The Most Hated Man on the Internet" premieres July 27 on Netflix.

Netflix

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2022-07-28

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