Hunter Moore, described by Rolling Stone magazine as "the most hated man on the internet", is preparing to relaunch his "revenge porn" venture after selling his site to an anti-bullying organisation earlier this year.
Moore's site, IsAnyoneUp, allowed anyone to anonymously submit compromising nude photographs or video of people, which would then be published with their names and links to their Facebook page.
There was a sigh of relief when the site shut down in April amid reports it was being investigated by the FBI. But Moore, 26, said in a phone interview with this website that he would relaunch it, with all the old content intact, in January using the site HunterMoore.TV.
On his landing page, Moore writes: "I am creating something that will question if you will ever want to have kids." He is already accepting submissions and told Fairfax: "I did 3200 submissions yesterday, so it's pretty crazy".
"I changed the game - it's porn you can f--- with," said Moore. "It's not just objects on a screen, it's not just random people you're looking at; it is literally the girl next door or the girl at the club you just saw."
Moore, who lived in Sydney for a few years from 2008, said he was back because the fans missed his site and so did he. Plus, the money was pretty good.
"We were pulling in profit of about $20,000 a month, but we would bring in about $40,000 to $60,000 a month just depending on advertising."
Moore isn't the only user-submitted porn merchant on the web but he's certainly the most brazen. While not exactly porn, OzCrush.com, set to formally launch in early 2013, has been accepting photos of "attractive" Australian public transport commuters.
Moore is happy to make money off your sexting mistakes, and despite once being stabbed by someone featured on the site ("I completely deserved it"), he doesn't care who he hurts along the way. He told one blog this week that if someone committed suicide after being featured on his site he wouldn't care, as it generated him more money.
But he qualified that on Tuesday, telling Fairfax it would depend who the person was. He said he just created the platform; it was the users who submitted the photos and they were ultimately to blame.
Those submitting to Moore's site should beware - a Sydney man was sentenced to six months' jail in April for publishing nude pictures of his former lover on Facebook.
Social commentator Nina Funnell said maliciously sharing sexualised or nude images of other people without their consent was a "particularly vile form of abuse or harassment".
"It's an attempt to sexually humiliate the subject and the behavior fits on the rape-spectrum since its purpose is to experience a sense of power over the victim," she said.
Loose-knit hacker group Anonymous this week published a video calling on its community to go after Moore and hold him accountable, under "Operation Hunt Hunter". The group has published Moore's personal details and address online.
"I don't really give a f---, to be completely honest with you. I make my money and pay my bills," Moore said.
There were hundreds, if not thousands, featured on his site and often those featured are hounded from Facebook by online gawkers. Moore used the site to further ridicule people who tried to have their photos taken down, even going as far as publishing links to their new Facebook accounts after they changed names.
In previous interviews over the past week, Moore said his new site would feature people's addresses, but he told Fairfax he was drunk when he said that and he would only publish addresses of those who come after him.
"People try to threaten me with legal action all the time or come to my house and try to serve me ... If you do me wrong I'll put your address online and do all the mapping and stuff," he said.
Moore, who claims he "age verifies" all photos, said he wasn't worried about legal repercussions because website owners in the US were generally not held responsible for content submitted by users.
He said he had secured investors and spent $150,000 developing new technology to power the site, including social networking features and apps.
He wouldn't give away many details, save to say "people are going to have a bit more control over the content instead of me just making fun of fat people or the girls' tits".
"Most people that have been hurt really bad. Usually they have their heart ripped out or for whatever reason they need a platform to get back at somebody, and I'm there for them."
Melinda Tankard Reist, an author and speaker on issues around the sexualisation of young women, said "we live in a culture that rewards exhibitionism" and people were not always thinking about the consequences when sending or taking these images.
"We know that some young women have actually taken their lives as a result of their images being used inappropriately so this could contribute to these ultimate harmful outcomes," she said.
- Sydney Morning Herald
