WATCH: An anonymous hacker has posted hundreds of private images of female celebrities online. Mike Drolet reports.
TORONTO — The FBI said Monday it is investigating the leak of hundreds of nude photos of stars including Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton.
“The FBI is aware of the allegations concerning computer intrusions and the unlawful release of material involving high profile individuals, and is addressing the matter,” read a statement.
“Any further comment would be inappropriate at this time.”
The photos of famous females nude and, in some cases, in sexual situations, were posted to the 4chan image sharing forum and quickly spread to other websites.
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Among those whose private pics went public were Lawrence, Upton and stars like Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Becca Tobin and Kristen Dunst.
The hacker claimed to have similar photos of Gabrielle Union, Hilary Duff, Kaley Cuoco, Mary-Kate Olsen and Selena Gomez.
Reps for Lawrence called the photos “a flagrant violation of privacy” and warned authorities will prosecute anyone who posts them.
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Upton’s lawyers said it was “an outrageous violation” of her privacy and vowed to “pursue anyone disseminating or duplicating these illegally obtained images to the fullest extent possible.”
Actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead reacted to the leak on social media, tweeting: “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.
“Knowing those photos were deleted long ago, I can only imagine the creepy effort that went into this. Feeling for everyone who got hacked.”
Dunst simply tweeted “Thank you iCloud” and used emoticons to describe it as a “piece of s***.”
Other stars, though, insisted they are not the ones in the steamy photos.
Singer Ariana Grande tweeted: “Hell nah… praying for the people who believed that was me… my petite a** is much cuter than that.” Victoria Justice also denied she was a victim.
Canadian actor Seth Rogen used Twitter to discourage people from reposting the pics.
In a series of tweets, Girls star Lena Dunham also came the defence of the women whose photos were hacked.
Comedian Ricky Gervais was one of those who seemed to blame the victims. He tweeted: “Celebrities, make it harder for hackers to get nude pics of you by not putting nude pics of yourself on your computer.”
He later deleted the tweet and added: “Of course the hackers are 100% to blame but you can still makes jokes about it. Jokes don’t portray your true serious feelings on a subject.”
At The Atlantic, columnist Jessica Valenti chastised people who justify sharing the leaked photos.
“Even if we’re not the people who stole the pictures, and even if we’re not publishing them on blogs or tweeting them out, looking at naked photos of someone who doesn’t want us to goes beyond voyeurism,” she opined. “It’s abuse.”
Luke O’Neil of Esquire wrote: “There’s a term for seizing access to a woman’s sexuality without her permission when it takes place in the physical world, and yet most of the people who consume these types of images and trade them back and forth like young men might have done with prized baseball cards in a previous generation would scoff at the suggestion that there’s any analogy to be made here to rape. Much like we’ve seen in nearly every other realm, however, our ethics here have not caught up to the technology. Very few of us would hide in the bushes outside of a woman’s home in order to catch a glimpse of her getting changed, but how is that any different from this?”
Here’s a look at some of the Twitter reaction to the leak of nude photos:
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