The Fappening
‘The Fappening’ occurred in August 2014 and took celebrity privacy violation to a new level. Superstars such as Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton became victims as private photos were posted on ‘4chan’, an imageboard sharing site. The images included photographs of the stars naked or in their underwear. With 20 million unique visitors per month, these images went viral and spread all over sites like Tumblr and Reddit. It is rumoured these pictures were leaked by hackers following security breaches of Dropbox and iCloud accounts. Whatever the method, this has sparked controversy over ‘life in the limelight’ within the 21st century.
This isn’t the first invasion of privacy to hit Tinseltown, with phone hacking, doorstopping and wedding crashing all hitting the headlines previously. The wedding of Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas was witness to a privacy lawsuit of over £1million when HELLO magazine sent undercover ‘guests’ to the ceremony after rival mag OK! had already won exclusivity to cover the event.
“The world is an unprecedented zone of mass indiscriminate surveillance.”
The mid 2000s saw the revelation that the British paper News of the World had conducted extensive phone hacking. Their targets included members of the Royal family, the government, celebrities and even the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. News of the World editor, Andy Coulson, is about to face a retrial after it was claimed he bought telephone numbers of the Royal family from corrupt police officers.
All in the interest of the public
At a recent TED talk, American journalist Glenn Greenwald describes the world as an “unprecedented zone of mass indiscriminate surveillance,” a world where every move we make can be captured, including private moments not meant for an audience.
The parameters between what is public interest and what is an invasion of privacy are very unclear. The death of Michael Jackson is a prime example of when public interest meets curiosity. After his death in 2009, many photographs were released of his bedroom where he was pronounced dead. A large quantity of oxygen bottles, prescribed pills and medical supplies were photographed next to Jackson’s unmade bed, sparking speculation that his death was due to an overdose of the surgical aesthetic propofol.
The images told the story of Jackson’s final hours, but was the media right to publish them? A copy of the service report from the Los Angeles Fire department was released too. Was it in the interest of the public to build awareness of the effect prescription drugs can have on an individual, or was it to sell a story and spark speculation?
Paris Jackson, Jackson’s daughter, allegedly attempted suicide following her father’s death and media attention is said to have complicated and troubled her life. It is easy to forget the feelings of a family in turmoil when it comes to celebrity and death. Can the media really justify this kind of attention?
Who is to blame?
Celebrities are often the first to hit out against privacy invasions and call for stronger laws to combat them. Having said that, some belief the use of social media contradicts the want for a private life. George Clooney thinks that celebs who use Twitter are ‘morons’, whilst Kiera Knightly hates the web. In a recent article titled, ‘Pay Attention & Leave Me Alone,’ Steve Tuttle concludes celebrities are the fuel behind their own violations.
Some argue that announcing the birth of babies and marriage proposals via social media whilst asking for ‘respect for privacy‘ is contradictory and provides the press with a motive to sell stories. Social media involves making some of your private life public, but this can also happen even if you don’t personally use it. Tweeting you have just spotted an A-List celeb with your location services turned on is a green light for the media to swarm the area for a snap.
The future of privacy
English judge, Sir Brian Henry Leveson, headed the public inquiry examining the culture, practice & ethics of the British press, including the aforementioned phonehacking scandal. Judge Leveson recommended new press standards and a new code of conduct for the media, however a second phase is expected as the inquiry expands to look at the BBC and social media.
How far the Leveson inquiry goes is dependent on the future of social media and hacking technologies. Biohacking could be the next major movement within privacy violations and let me tell you – it isn’t pretty. Wearable technologies such as the iWatch can give us access to all kinds of data about sleeping habits, diet and fitness, but when biohacking technology makes it under our skin, how will celebrities, or even the general public, hide away at all?
