The controversy around this week’s hack attack that leaked nude selfies from dozens of Hollywood celebrities has taken many turns, but throughout it reputable media in the US and Europe have largely avoided showing the stolen photos. But in China, major media outlets and tech giants are showing no such restraint – including China’s biggest web company, Tencent (HKG:0700) – in publishing the private images taken by stars such as Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, and Kirsten Dunst.
A quick trawl through the biggest news portals on the Chinese web show the leaked photos in full, using only minimal pixelation in a few places to prevent the portrayal of full nudity, which is illegal in China (hat-tip to Nanfang Insider for spotting this). But the illegality of publishing the hacked photos themselves – a crime that the FBI is now investigating – appears not to be troubling these sites.
Here’s what China’s web users can find right now on the Tencent-owned QQ News portal (note: we’ve fully obscured the stolen images, but the sites themselves have not). It’s reporting the story by showing two of the Jennifer Lawrence images:
Another web giant, US-listed Sina (NASDAQ:SINA), is exploiting the hack attack with alacrity, creating one page packed with dozens of the pics, and another featuring a slideshow of 27 of the nude selfies:
And here’s the popular news portal on Netease (NASDAQ:NTES) using a slideshow of 34 pictures in its apparently serious news report on the subject:
Phoenix New Media is doing pretty much the same on its Chinese iFeng news section:
We’ve contacted Sina and Tencent, the two biggest companies involved, to ask why they’re using the images stolen from the hack attack victims in their news reporting.
Of course, Chinese media is not alone in running the leaked photos, and supposedly upstanding media outlets and websites in many other nations – perhaps lured by the easy clicks, or by their distance from the US legal system – are using the images in full as well. But many of these China web titans are actually closely linked to the US, where they trade on Wall Street.
See: Fashion brands in China work hard to get dedicated followers on WeChat
Many of the nudes are believed to have been stored in Apple’s iCloud. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) said yesterday that the leak seems to be the result of “a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions” of celebrity accounts.
The FBI is now investigating the thefts. The last such attack on a celebrity’s private photos resulted in a decade-long prison sentence for a Florida man who gained access to online storage belonging to Scarlett Johansson. Those who share the images online are technically complicit in the crime, though it’s unclear if authorities in the US – or the lawyers of the affected celebrities – will go after individuals who have posted the images to their blogs or social media accounts.
Seriously, do not forget that the person who stole these pictures and leaked them is not a hacker: they’re a sex offender.
— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) September 1, 2014
Remember, when you look at these pictures you are violating these women again and again. It’s not okay.
— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) September 1, 2014
To those of you looking at photos I took with my husband years ago in the privacy of our home, hope you feel great about yourselves.
— Mary E. Winstead (@M_E_Winstead) August 31, 2014
The post China’s media and tech giants show no restraint in posting hacked Hollywood nude selfies appeared first on Tech in Asia.
China’s media and tech giants show no restraint in posting hacked Hollywood nude selfies
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