James Spillane
What is The Fappening? That was the awkward question I was asked today by several friends who read my previous article about a viral Reddit broadcast dedicated to the event.
The Fappening in it’s most basic of terms is a combination of two words: Happening and Fapping. The latter refers to the practice of masturbating, and is most often used by female internet users in place of the words masturbation or masturbating. Happening simply refers to an event that is currently underway. Combine the two and you have The Fappening.
What Is The Fappening: The Specifics
More specifically The Fappening refers to a massive internet upload that is purported to include upwards of 2GB worth of naked female celebrity photos. Believed to be among those celebrities are Selena Gomez, Jennifer Lawrence. Ariana Grande, and dozens of other popular TV and movie stars.
Currently the following females are believed to have naked photos released en masse in The Fappening: Jennifer Lawrence, Kaley Cuoco, Kate Upton, Victoria Justice, Lea Michele, Ariana Grande, Brie Larson, Kristen Dunst, Becca Tobin, Jessica Brown Findlay, Hope Solo, Teresa Palmer, Kristen Ritter, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, McKayla Maroney, and Aubrey Plaza.
The Fappening began on August 31, 2014 and has continued for nearly 24 hours. If the creator of The Fappening is to be believed, there are still many more uploads that will occur in the coming hours and days ahead.
What Is The Fappening: How It All Began
An unknown hacker reportedly gained access to the private photo repositories for dozens of female celebrities. Early reports suggest that the hacker may have used unauthorized iCloud account access to steal photos, and possibly several videos. Several celebrities claim that they use Google Android devices, which means iCloud could be one of numerous services that were breached for the illegal event.
There was no warning that The Fappening was about to begin. The hacker did not request money for the photos or videos, instead choosing to anonymously upload photos in small batches. The first well known actress to receive exposure from the event was Jennifer Lawrence. Immediately following the release of her private nude photos, Lawrence threatened to sue any sites that took part in the event.
Eventually celebrity blogger Perez Hilton released several of the nude photos on his website, before removing the photos, and ultimately issuing an internet apology via Twitter.
What Is Fappening Now?
The Fappening has led to an active investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and various other law enforcement agencies. The event started when photos were uploaded to popular photo repository sites, including 4Chan’s anonymous image service, Imgur, and ultimately Reddit. The term, in less than 24 hours, spurred the popular subreddit /R/TheFappening and eventually led to the creation of a live Reddit broadcast of events at http://www.reddit.com/live/thwsx6wkbysn. That live event as I previously reported, has spurred more than 100,000 real-time viewers.
The Fappening has also led to the outright denial of pictures by some of the female celebrities alleged to be displayed in the photographs. As denials pour in, some internet users are looking to debunk the celebrities own debunking of the released photographs.
In some cases internet users with too much time on their hand, have resorted to creating GIFs in the form of naught moving images. Those GIFs have oddly enough become highly coveted among Reddit and 4Chan users.
In the meantime, the hacker who released the photos has claimed that they may soon issue all 2GB worth of photos and videos in a single action. Currently they have released only a few photos at a time.
Female Celebrities Respond To Their Pics Being Released
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
Knowing those photos were deleted long ago, I can only imagine the creepy effort that went into this. Feeling for everyone who got hacked.
— Mary E. Winstead (@M_E_Winstead) August 31, 2014
These so called nudes of me are FAKE people. Let me nip this in the bud right now. *pun intended*
— Victoria Justice (@VictoriaJustice) August 31, 2014
In a public statement Jennifer Lawrence wrote:
“This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence.”
So what is The Fappening? It’s basically a waste of time, and a violation of privacy that will likely lead to a future arrest, and a long prison sentence for some unlucky hacker.
Read more: What Is The Fappening And Why Should You Care?
This article was written for Business 2 Community by James Spillane.
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The “FBI” lol. “Hello internet police?” Why does The U.S. think they run the web? If you’re looking for an apology from the Internet, you’re going to have a bad potato.
Err where do you think the internet came from? We created it, we control it, we can shut it down. Perhaps your country can have a hand in managing it… right after you plant a flag on the moon.
Eh John you seem confused. American’s did not create the internet. A British scientist working at CERN did.http://home.web.cern.ch/topics/birth-web
“The Fappening” isn’t the combination of Happening and Fapping. It’s the combination of Reckoning and Fapping. It’s a play on words for “The Reckoning”. Another variation of The Reckoning is “The Rektening”
People have had their accounts hacked, pictures stolen, and private information made public for as long as the internet has existed.
But suddenly it happens to a bunch of rich white people, and OOOOH, the FBI now suddenly HAS to get involved.
So, what the hey were all these celebrities doing uploading their nude photos to the iCloud? Really?!
If you’re going to write articles about the Interwebz at least get your facts right; ‘fapping’ is a general term used by both men and women to describe masturbation by both sexes.
Regarding these foolish women who have seemingly taken gynaecological photo’s of themselves, wise up, any photo taken by you that had a connection to the internet is unsafe no matter what the companies declare otherwise.
A whole article titled “What Is The Fappening?”, and you don’t even know or understand that the base for it is the title of the movie “The Happening”…
I hope the degenerate that did this gets caught, sent to jail, and put on the sexual offenders’ register for life. I feel deeply sorry for those girls who have suffered unimaginable humiliation. Also… “The fappening”? Good God – I swear some people have no shame… it’s like their proud of being both depraved, perverted and immature at the same time.
We don’t have enough similes for “error in judgement” that we have to invent idiotic mash ups of which nobody seems to really know the combination/definition? Technically, this is Internet pornography (by definition – not a prude here) and should be investigated by the FBI as such. Now, for all you critics out there, I’m sure more than one of has taken racy photos and put them someplace “secure” only to have them come up missing (or eaten by the nearest plastic loving dog). Quit criticizing others for what you may have done – and if you didn’t, I’m sorry you’re so sexually repressed you can’t understand the titillation in seeing your pretty bits. It’s also an excellent self-diagnostic tool to check for changes in appearance which could indicate a medical issue. These women didn’t beg to have private photos stolen – blame the security of the company and not them.
upload your nudes to the internet or take pictures on your phone, you get all whats coming to you. Common sense tells you not to take pictures of your junk . Easy to get out there
“massive internet upload that is purported to include upwards of 2GB”
I think you need to learn what the word “massive” means. A regular single porn movie takes up to 15 times as much space as this upload.
In the context of a nude celebrity picture leak it is a massive amount of information.
When you put your privacy in the cloud … what are you waiting for? Nothing online is private!