Is Anyone Up?

About

Is Anyone Up? was an adult media submission website featuring photographs and videos of anyone of legal age uploaded to the site, which often included musicians and fans of the hardcore music genre.

History

The domain name for the site IsAnyoneUp.com^[2] was registered on August 12th, 2010 by founder Hunter Moore, who stated in an interview with the alternative culture blog Alt Press^[1] that he was inspired to create the site because he experienced “some sort of high" from looking at nude pictures of someone he knew.

On November 29th, a copycat site named IsAnybodyDown^[9] was created, mimicking the original site's format featuring user submitted adult photos. On April 19th, IsAnybodyUp was shut down and sold to the anti-bullying site BullyVille^[4] for $15,000,^[8] which featured an open letter explaining why the site was removed. The letter has since been removed but was pasted on the Eurogamer Forums^[3] on April 20th (shown below).

It’s been a little over a year from the first post on Is Anyone Up and its crazy to think that the few posts I did with my friends to get back at a few girls that broke our hearts would turn into what it did. I started the site with zero dollars, I had -$120 in my bank account and had to ask my mom for her credit card to pay for the $9 Server bill.

HunterMoore.tv

On November 29th, 2012, the tech news blog Beta Beat^[19] published an interview with Moore titled "Hunter Moore’s ‘Scary as Shit’ Revenge Porn Site Will Map Submitted Photos to People’s Addresses," in which Moore announced that he would be launching a new adult media submission site HunterMoore.tv,^[20] which would allow uploaders to include the subject's name, social media profiles and address. The article also reported that the new address field might destroy Moore's defense under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which grants websites immunity from responsibility for user submitted content.

Features

The site allowed users to anonymously submit nude photographs to be featured on the blog, which would often be accompanied by a clothed picture taken from the subject’s social networking profile page, followed by a reaction image. Most images were either submitted by the subject themselves or maliciously leaked by an enemy or former love interest. The blog also included "Daily Hate" posts, which featured angry emails from people whose photos were displayed on the site without their consent.

Controversy

The site has been criticized for its ethically questionable practice of encouraging readers to submit nude photographs of enemies and former lovers. On July 6th, 2011, Forbes^[5] published an article titled "Revenge Porn With a Facebook Twist," which noted that many of the submissions to Moore's site were maliciously uploaded by people seeking revenge. That same month, Moore was reportedly stabbed by a San Francisco-area woman according to the Village Voice,^[12] leaving the site's founder with a "caterpillar-sized scar." On April 30th, the rock music blog Common Revolt^[14]published a post reporting that Moore had been removed from the Bamboozle music festival line-up for posting nude photos of the band A Day to Remember. On November 21st, Moore appeared on the talk show Anderson Live and was confronted by two women who had been featured on the site (shown below).

"No one put a gun to your head and made you take these pictures. It's 2011, everything's on the Internet."

On December 4th, the Los Angeles Times^[6] published an article titled "Rockers, fully exposed on Is Anyone Up?", reporting that several bands had issued take down notices for posting nude images of musicians on the site. The same month, Facebook threatened legal action against the website and blocked the site's domain across the entire site according to < href=/memes/sites/wikipedia>Wikipedia.^[13]

FBI Investigation

On May 16th, 2012, The Village Voice^[18] published an article titled "'Gary Jones' Wants Your Nudes," which reported that Moore was under investigation by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for having hosted a large number of photographs believed to have been obtained from the hacker "Gary Jones." On May 22nd, ABC News^[8] published an article title "FBI Investigates 'Revenge Porn' Website Founder," reporting that private investigator Charlotte Laws contacted the FBI after Moore refused to take down photographs of her daughter Kayla.

Feud With Anonymous

On December 3rd, 2012, the BBC^[15] published an article titled "Anonymous Target Revenge Porn Site Owner Hunter Moore," reporting that the ad-hoc group of Internet users known as "Anonymous" had announced that Moore would be held "accountable for his actions." On December 6th, Gawker^[17] published a post titled "All of Hunter Moore's Personal Information is Now on the Internet, Thanks to Anonymous," which reported that Anonymous had successfully doxed Moore, releasing a Pastebin containing his personally identifiable information. The operation was referred to as "#OpHuntHunter" and "#OpAntiBully."

Arrest

On January 23rd, 2014, Moore was indicted on charges of "conspiracy to access a protected computer without authorization to obtain information for private financial gain" in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.^[21][22] He was charged with co-conspirator Charles Evens, who allegedly acquired photos for IsAnybodyUp by breaking into e-mail accounts. Both men are scheduled to appear in court on January 28th. Their arrest follows a law passed in the state of California in October 2013 that made revenge porn illegal.^[23] On the day of his arrest Moore tweeted, referencing the pop singer's recent arrest.^[24]

Verdict and Sentencing

In February of 2015, Hunter Moore pled guilty to one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information, and one count of aggravated identity theft. On November 16th, 2015, Moore was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee to two and a half years in prison followed by three years of supervised release, during which he would have to undergo regular psychiatric evaluation. He was also sentenced to pay a $2,000 fine.^[25]

During the sentencing, Judge Gee told said of Moore that he "He hid behind his online persona and engaged in aberrant behavior,” and then addressed Moore directly: “Now you must face the consequences of your own actions. Your poor judgment has caused much pain to your victims and your family.”^[26] Documents from his sentencing hearing were sealed by the court, causing some to comment that it was ironic for Moore to receive privacy after having denied it to others.

Traffic

In an interview with The Awl^[7] on November 10th, 2011, Moore claimed that the site was receiving over 30 million page views and making $13,000 per month. An article published in the Los Angeles Times^[6] the following month reported that Moore revealed that the site was receiving over 1.6 million unique visitors according to Google Analytics. As of December 7th, 2012, a Facebook page for "Is Anyone Up?" has received over 3,600 likes and Hunter Moore's Twitter^[11] account has accumulated over 103,000 followers.

Search Interest

External References