FBI is Reportedly Investigating the Leslie Jones Hack, Which Still Reeks of Racism and Sexism

May many (more) bad things befall the cowards who’ve attacked my friend, @Lesdoggg. They are the worst of humanity, where she is the best.

— Taran Killam (@TaranKillam) August 24, 2016

By now, you’ve heard the awful story of how hackers infiltrated Leslie Jones’ website to post her nude photos as well as pictures of her private documents including her passport and driver’s license. Adding insult to injury, they placed a photo of Harambe at the top of the page because sending her racist and sexist tweets wasn’t harmful enough.

Now, TMZ is reporting that the FBI is looking into the situation.  “Sources familiar with the situation tell us, the FBI is developing a strategy for tracking down the person or people who hacked into her iCloud and cell phone and posted nude photos and personal information on her website,” they wrote, per Jezebel. They added that it’s “unclear whether agents from the West Coast or East Coast will launch the investigation” since Jones takes up residence on both coasts.

It’s been a long year of online abuse for Jones, who was previously singled out from her Ghostbusters co-stars with an onslaught of offensive messages via Twitter. She almost didn’t have an outfit for the film’s big premiere, since several designers refused to dress her, until Christian Siriano came to the rescue.

This whole situation points to a greater issue, in which black women receive a disproportionate amount of criticism and abuse. We previously saw that when the internet attacked Gabby Douglas for not putting her hand over her heart, despite standing at attention like many athletes before her, and not smiling enough during the Olympic Games.  And let’s not forget that time MAC featured a black model’s plump lips on their Instagram and users flooded the image with racist epithets, meanwhile Kylie Jenner is praised for her artificially enhanced lips. More recently, there’s the outrage of Zendaya possibly being Mary Jane in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Every excuse, that Lesie shouldn’t have taken nude photos if she didn’t want them out there or Zendaya isn’t a natural redhead and therefore can’t be MJ, is just a smokescreen for the underlying racism that has befallen our country for centuries. And in Leslie’s case, there’s the inherent sexism of treating a woman’s body like it’s there for public consumption, consent be damned.

It doesn’t matter whether you like the person or not, or whether you agree or disagree with taking explicit pictures—there is never an excuse for a personal attack like this and I hope that, for Leslie’s sake, justice is served. She did not deserve any of this. Period.

(via Jezebel, image via Instagram)

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