The Department of Homeland Security took the cyber attack on “Ghostbusters” star Leslie Jones to a federal level. The case is now the responsibility of the sub-office Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This Thursday, the agency told the Associated Press the New York office was looking into the privacy breach.
The unknown group of hackers managed to get Jones’ nude pictures, and images of her passport and driver’s license. They also posted a distasteful racist video on the actress’ official website.
The actress media team took down the site on Wednesday morning immediately after the attack, and it is still down.
The FBI has handled previous hacks to high-profile celebrities: one in 2011 in which Scarlett Johansson was involved; and the 2014’s leak where Jennifer Lawrence was involved.
Internet trolls have been attacking Leslie Jones on Twitter for months
The “Saturday Night Live” regular was also the victim of a barrage of racial and sexist attacks on Twitter over the last six months.
She called on the social media to do more against harassment, and Twitter banned several accounts in response. But, for the most part, her comments on the situation are about Twitter’s delay to address the situation.
The repeated attacks are raising questions whether Leslie Jones is the target of something more sinister than just standard internet trolling.
The hashtag #StandWithLeslie labels the attacks as “misogynoir,” a term that refers to the particular ways a black woman experiences the violence of racism and misogyny.
#IStandWithLeaslie
By nature, Twitter connects people from all over the world and serves as a platform for free speech. However, the network is not built to accommodate the privacy and security of every person who uses it.
Millions of people receive hate messages every day, but when a celebrity like Leslie Jones is attacked, it is kind of difficult to ignore. A former senior Twitter employee told BuzzFeed the social platform was “a honeypot for a**holes.”
In fact, according to ‘Working to Halt Online Abuse,’ an organization that has been tracking online abuse since 2000, 70 percent of online harassment cases reported in the U.S. target women.
Do not give your eyeballs to this racist, hate-filled, misogynoir crime. I #StandWithLeslie ❤️
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) August 24, 2016
Online users with particular feminine names or public feminists faces are particularly vulnerable. Via #StandWithLeslie, the matter is surfacing to the public, but the effectiveness rests in the popularity of the hashtag.
source: LA Times
