ELECTRIC WORD WIRED 00.
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RE: “IN DEFENSE OF TECH”
“I love the wholemade world too. Fordmade me feel OKabout admitting it.”
—Susanna Shea, via wired.comRE:“HOW A HACKER
SHAMED AND
HUMILIATED HIGH
SCHOOL GIRLS IN
A SMALL NEW
HAMPSHIRE TOWN.
AND HOW THEY
FOUGHT BACK.”
Stephanie Clifford cuts right to my
core, as somebody who was relent-
lessly hacked and stalked for over
three years. A living hell to say the least;
the hopelessness, the desperation, and
the feeling of being misunderstood or
shunned by those who don’t want to
get involved are very accurate. It’s
nice to have a writer in your magazine
who gets a girl’s heart. More please.
—Sara Kristensen, via wired.com
Kudos to law enforcement here for
taking this case seriously. I’m always
struck by how powerful sex-shaming
is for victims—in this case, even after
a conviction. Bystanders can fight
back against digital crimes by work-
ing to destigmatize female bodies.
—Sarah Jeong (@sarahjeong), via Twitter
This should be required reading
for all parents. —Kathryn A. Wagner,
via wired.com
Until we stop making excuses, laugh-
ing, joking, or blaming the vic-
tim and saying “boys will be boys,”
those who sexually abuse others
will see it as a right and way of life.
—Juliane Jackson, via wired.comRE:“THE FIGHT
TO TAKE DOWN
BACKPAGE”If you could take the street corners of
New York City in the 1980s after mid-
night and turn them into a website,
you’d have a great idea of what Back-
page was all about. Backpage was
the result of our prohibition againstprostitution. Legalize the exchange
of sex for money, tax it, regulate it
and you’ll see the horrific results of
underground prostitution almost
vanish. —Brady DeAngelo, via FacebookThe FBI caused damage to a lot of
legal advertisers by seizing Back-
page.com. Our company had used
the “vehicles for sale” section to
advertise for our car dealer clients
until they shut down the entire web-
site. Seems to me that the govern-
ment has too much power and can
control whoever they want by play-
ing their shell game. —Larry Scala,
via wired.comReaders on what moved and
what maddened them:
CASE STUDIES
In July, Christine Biederman wrote about the
founders of the online sex-marketing jugger-
naut Backpage.com, Michael Lacey (pictured)
and James Larkin, and their fight with the feds.
“Here’s the thing,” Biederman writes, “Silicon
Valley had better hope they win. United States
v. Lacey is a dangerous case.” In the same issue,
Stephanie Clifford told the story of several
young women who were terrorized via online
sextortion. And in June, Paul Ford wrote a lyrical
defense of the tech industry.GET MORE
WIRED
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