Justice: Revenge Porn Extortionist Sentenced To 18 Years

Back in February, Kevin Christopher Bollaert was convicted of extorting money out of victims to have their photos and personal information removed from the revenge porn website he ran. On Friday, April 3rd, he was finally sentenced to 18 years in a state prison.

According to the AP:

More than 10,000 images, mainly of women, were posted between December 2012 and September 2013.

Victims included teachers, wives and professionals. The compromising photos cost people jobs, damaged relationships and led to one attempted suicide.

Bollaert was also ordered by the judge to pay $10,000 in restitution to the victims.

This judgement comes on the heels of other revenge porn site operator convictions. Also in February, Hunter “The Most Hated Man On The Internet” Moore pleaded guilty to many of the same charges Bollaert faced, including identity theft, unauthorized access to a computer, and aiding and abetting unauthorized access to a computer.

Once again in the same month, in a remarkable display of irony, Craig “Also A Gamergater” Brittain filed for his personal images and information to be removed from Google’s search engine. Thankfully, Google hasn’t removed anything about him, citing “fair use and First Amendment principles,” according to Ars Technica.

Considering Twitter and Facebook’s moves to ban revenge porn, the online landscape is (finally) looking like it’s shaping up to be just a little bit better. Not a whole lot better, but better.

(via Jezebel)

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Jessica Lachenal

Jessica Lachenal is a writer who doesn’t talk about herself a lot, so she isn’t quite sure how biographical info panels should work. But here we go anyway. She's the Weekend Editor for The Mary Sue, a Contributing Writer for The Bold Italic (thebolditalic.com), and a Staff Writer for Spinning Platters (spinningplatters.com). She's also been featured in Model View Culture and Frontiers LA magazine, and on Autostraddle. She hopes this has been as awkward for you as it has been for her.

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