Twitter War Erupts After EU Commissioner Calls Celebrities In Nude Selfie Leaked Photos ‘Dumb’
A Twitter war has started after Gunther Gettinger, the EU commissioner designate of Digital Economy and Society blamed the female celebrities on Monday in Brussels for the furor that their leaked nude selfies caused. He was quoted by BBC as saying, "IF SOMEONE IS dumb enough as a celebrity to take a nude photo of themselves and put it online, they surely can't expect us to protect them."
YouTube/Julia Reda
Among the victims of the nude leaked photos that were published in Reddit and 4Chan are Jennifer Lawrence, Kim Khardasian, Rihanna and Kate Upton. In a span of four weeks, the hackers had made 3 rounds of nude leaks called Fappening.
Read: 55 New Images Of Jennifer Lawrence In Round 3 Of Nude Leaks
He added, "I mean stupidity is something you cannot - or partly - save people from."
However, Ottinger's strong remarks drew a sharp rebuke from Julia Reda, a German MP representing the Pirate Party, by posting on YouTube the EU official's comment and criticising on her blog his stand. She wrote: "The person applying to be in charge of shoring up trust in the internet so that Europeans do more business online, just blamed people whose personal data was accessed and spread without authorization," quoted The Journal.
Reda pointed out that "He placed the moral blame for that crime squarely on the victims rather than the perpetrators."
Some Twitter members agreed with Reda.
laurens tweeted - "Maybe it's not their supposed stupidity people need saving from but an Internet Commissioner from another time & age."
Tom K believes that Ottinger's lack of knowledge of the difference between the Web and Internet "sets the bar low as EU digi commissioner.
Paul B added, that expectations that everyone's human rights are protected "is neither dumb nor stupid."
However, Casper Bowden agreed with Ottinger, saying, "Ottinger is actually right ... don't put your data in the Cloud Mrs. Worthington."
Ottinger agreed that people, including celebrities, have a right to privacy, and the EU Commission wants to make cloud computing safer, but would not apologise for what he said.
Reda accused Ottinger of mocking what is a serious problem by stating his comments "in this aloof and insulting tone." She said such behaviour places a question mark he is qualified for his post of shaping the regional bloc's digital society for until 2019.