Every time a new round of explicit photos stolen from a celebrity’s private collection goes public, there’s a renewed outcry to tighten security and ramp up enforcement of existing laws.
Unfortunately, most of the time, the perpertators go unpunished, and it’s not long before a new round of celebrity nudes goes public.
The latest victim is Justin Bieber, and in a bizarre twist, Bieber’s ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez was also victimized by the hackers.
According to TMZ, several nude photos of Bieber appeared on Gomez’s Instagram page Monday afternoon.
The site reports that the hackers captioned the photo with lewd comments about Bieber and boasts about their hacking abilities.
“LOOK AT THIS N-GGA LIL SHRIMPY,” they wrote, before encouraging users to follow three Instagram accounts, each of which only has a handful of posts, but several thousand followers.
“We run da scene,” they concluded.
Gomez quickly deactivated her account after the hack.
She is now back on Instagram, and has not yet publicly commented on the incident.
Bieber has also not yet commented on the situation, and it’s possible that both singers will simply refuse to acknowledge the hackers, as they seem to be seeking notoriety.
This is not the first time that Bieber has been hacked, and sadly, it looks as though it may not be the last.
There are those who have argued that like obnoxious paparazzi and over-zealous fans, a lack of digital priivacy is just a reality of life as a celebrity in the 21st century.
The problem with that argument, of course, is that sharing someone’s nude photos without their consent constitutes a sex crime, and a world where famous people are forced to come to accept being victimized by sexual predators, is surely one that none of us wants to live in.
We don’t pretend to have the answer to the growing problem, but we’re certain that a complacent shrug is not the solution.
This time, the photos were removed quickly, but both Justin and Selena have no doubt been left with lingering feelings of vulnerability.
Both celebrities and non-famous folks who have been victims of hacks are accutely aware of a reality that most of us do are best to ignore at 2017:
Each of us is more exposed than ever before, and few among of us have any real sense of what it takes to keep out personal data safe.
Today it’s Justin Bieber, but tomorrow it could be anyone.
