L'uomo più odiato di Internet

First of all, kudos to Charlotte Laws, James McGibney, the supportive FBI officer, and "Anonymous" for taking down the vicious internet criminal Hunter Moore and his horrific exploits. The incidents from 2011-12 are recalled with their fair share of chilling cyber terror, and the makers thoroughly stand behind the victims. While few of the perspectives are skewed (such as the pornstar who repeatedly kept pandering to Moore's demands and the ex-girlfriend who couldn't see through Moore's nasty personality) to add greyness, the right folks get all the screen-time.

There are some thrilling, goosebump-inducing moments such as when Moore's website suddenly redirects to an anti-bullying campaign instead, when he gets confronted by Laws in a live TV show, and when you learn the the pro-active methodology by which a bunch of white-hat hackers take Moore down. While laws still need to be rewritten to protect people's internet privacies, the makers are subtly asking us not to be easy pickings for such dubious individuals to take undue advantage. To summarize, even a vile, powerful internet bully can't tie the shoes of a parent who sought justice for her young daughter.

P. S: That endnote (on Moore's involvement in the documentary) was fabulous!

I've been on the internet since the AOL days... a long, long time ago. I learned even back then that people can put on a facade --- and you'd never know real from fake. Ultimately, though, even if they pretend to be something else, it's still themselves they're exposing.

Hunter Moore wanted to "pretend" innocence. He wanted to assume a persona where he could hurt others and laugh at their expense without reprecussion. Thing is, the more you wear a mask, the more the mask actually becomes who you truely are. The fake becomes the real. The "faux" bully becomes the real bully. And that's the way of it.

The documentary exposes how much of a bully Hunter Moore honestly was / is. It takes us step by step on how the website came to be, how it grew into a monster, and how, at the heart of it all, was Hunter uncaring, unmoved by any sympathy and in the end --- how he paid for being the monster he'd grown into.

Most reviewers want to say that this is a lesson on not posting stupid stuff on the internet. They're missing the point. The real lesson here is that our culture wants to reward the bad-boy and so we "pretend" to be that.... not even aware of the fact that the more we play this game.... the more truely despicable we actually are. Hunter played the bad-boy.... and it cost him several years of his life in prison. If you think that's "fun" --- If you think Hunter is admirable and someone to follow --- then you really haven't paid attention to the real cost at the end of that road.

What is actually unsettling in watching this is not the damage done to so many lives, but rather, seeing how many people sidled up to Hunter --- whether claiming to be part of his "family" or by simply making a spiteful comment at IsAnyoneUp --- how many people are actually that rotten to the core.... and don't even see it. And probably don't even see it after reading this.

The reviews for this documentary are very telling - so many dismissing the victims as whiney, or victim blaming, or disbelief that they were hacked, despite the FBI proving this to be the case. I've seen a few documentaries recently that suggest the world is better for women than it was 10-20 years ago - these reviews suggest otherwise. It's unbelievable the attempts to deflect from the real issue here - the innate misogyny amongst some men, and the way some behave when they believe they can. That's an alarming thing and an important lesson.

Unlike the posters here mocking the mother, and some even saying she and Hunter were as bad as each other (no, no they weren't), she's the best I've seen in a documentary for a long time. Yes, she's wealthy and had the time. But she did what many would not have done - after the situation was resolved for her daughter, she continued to gather evidence and support victims and raise it with the FBI and journalists and anyone who would listen. We need more people with that kind of dedication. We definitely need fewer people like Hunter and his fans.

My friends told me this this was coming up. As someone who's nudes were also stolen (hacked), put on that website, and harassed through social media for months, the documentary did a very good job in recreating and showing the nightmare that many of us had to live through when he was up and going. People forget that back then, camera phones had limited memory. People also forget that early iPhones could only send media through email. There was no cloud and people stored photos in email.

IAU was all fun and games until you were on it. Your phone number, address, and social media linked. You were constantly flooded with messages to kill yourself.

Most people aren't familiar with how big this got.

Although I won't watch this again, I'd recommend this to watch so everyone can become familiar with one of the darkest times of the internet.

This documentary highlights the sad and unsettling reality that there are disturbed people who are completely not in touch with reality and will exploit anyone for personal attention. It is shocking that the legal framework is unable to protect innocent people.