2014 celebrity nude photo leak

"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. "Celebgate" is a reference to the Watergate scandal. ==Procurement and distribution==

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. 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. It was believed that the images were obtained using an exploit in the Find My iPhone service. Court documents from 2014 indicated that one user created a fake email account called "appleprivacysecurity" to ask celebrities for security information. 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. 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. 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". A major center of activity was the link-sharing website Reddit, where a subreddit, /r/TheFappening, was created for sharing the photos; 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. 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. On September 7, citing copyright issues, Reddit banned /r/TheFappening, also saying the workload of dealing with them had become too much. Reddit banned another subreddit named "Fappening" on the same day. ==Content and affected celebrities==

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, Celebrities who denied the photos' authenticity include Ariana Grande ==Reactions==

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." Actress Emma Watson condemned not only the leak but "the accompanying comments [on social media] that show such a lack of empathy." Actors Seth Rogen and Lucas Neff also spoke out against the hackers and people who posted the pictures. 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. Security analysts have stated that the breach could have been prevented through the use of two-factor authentication, 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). (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. Notifications will be provided whenever data is restored to a device via iCloud and after logging into iCloud via a web browser, 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". Jennifer Lawrence contacted authorities and her publicist stated that the authorities would prosecute anyone who posted leaked images of her. 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. 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 YouTube), "[failing] to act expeditiously, and responsibly to remove the images", and "knowingly accommodating, facilitating, and perpetuating the unlawful conduct". 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." 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". ==Investigation==

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". 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. On January 24, 2017, Majerczyk was sentenced to nine months in prison and was ordered to pay in restitution to cover the counseling services of one unnamed celebrity victim. He was sentenced to 16 months in jail in March 2018. 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. 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, 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. Brannan was sentenced to 34 months in prison on March 1, 2019. ==See also==