February 15, 2017
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Website leaks private student photos
Play gathers support for prevention Jessica Knieff
CONTRIBUTOR
at parties and they are smoking,” Anonymous said. The student said that she was surprised by the number of other female students posted on the site. “I’m sure a lot of these people on the website have no idea that they’re on it,” the student said. “I don’t even know how many people have seen their naked pictures, and [the girls] probably don’t even know.” Particularly in Washburn’s case, the way the anonymous users speak suggests that some of them may be Washburn students, contributing to requesting and leaking photos of their peers. The student said she is particularly troubled by this knowledge. “That’s the worst part, saying that they see me around,” the student said. “It could be someone I know very well, or it could be someone I have
As part of the One Billion Rising revolution, Washburn University joined organizations around the world to celebrate V-day with performances of the Vagina Monologues a series of monologues describing women’s experiences with violence and sexism. The One Billion Rising revolution is a stand in solidarity with the one in three women (around 1 billion women total) who will be beaten or raped in her lifetime, as described by their website. V-Day, a celebration of One Billion Rising, was started when Eve Ensler gave permission for her 1996 play, the Vagina Monologues, to be performed freely without paying royalties.The only condition is that those performing this play must charge admission and donate proceeds to local organizations that fight violence against women and children. This play has sparked involvement around the globe and here at Washburn. Groups around the world take the month of February to celebrate V-Day through the Vagina Monologues and other events as the largest mass action to fight violence against women in history. Sharon Sullivan, a professor at Washburn, has been involved with the Vagina Monologues for seventeen years and was involved with its beginning years on campus at Washburn nearly fifteen years ago.
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Graphic by Mark Feuerborn
Mark Feuerborn
WASHBURN REVIEW
A website for anonymous posting was discovered hosting leaked nude photos of female students from multiple universities and high schools including Washburn University, University of Kansas, Washburn Rural and Seaman High last week, with posts indicating the site has been active for several months. The website meticulously breaks down nude photo-leaking into a state-by-state, cityby-city system. There are fifty channels, each representing a different state in the U.S. On each channel, users start threads typically based on area code, city, university, high school or even specifically focused on one person. Users post photos taken from the students’ social media and request any leaks available. In some instances, users were
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documented listing women’s phone numbers alongside their photos, and some threads were documented hosting photos of minors or photos of someone before they turned 18, which is child pornography. One Washburn student, who was recently made aware of the website’s existence after appearing in a post requesting her nude photos, said she is scared someone may now upload private photos of her. This student has been kept anonymous for her safety. “I feel kind of violated,” the student said. “It’s disgusting that somebody would go out of their way and try to get personal pictures. This is not consensual at all. I did not give anyone permission to post anything of me online.” The website is based on 4chan, a once popular image board that predates social media networks like Facebook and is still active today. 4chan
is known as a communication hub for the hacker group Anonymous, which derives its namesake from the lack of any identification or usernames required on 4chan. This new leaking website mirrors 4chan’s graphics scheme, posting interface and level of anonymity. Additionally, its community displays signs of a unique culture, with users referring to nude photos as “wins” and users commenting “bump” on posts to bring them to the front of the thread catalog. No users are readily identifiable, but the users talk about some of the women with leaked photos in a fashion that indicates they know them in-person. In a thread focused on Topeka where Washburn students’ photos were posted as a request for a leak, one user wrote the following: “Left is [name withheld] right is [name withheld], anyone have wins of them? Seen them
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