All language subtitles for Secrets.of.the.Celebrity.Sex.Tapes.S01E07.Revenge.Porn.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

You don't look like
most people in Congress.

Right. We've got to change
the face of politics.

She was the first openly
bisexual individual elected

to the House of Representatives
in California,

and it was a big deal.

Katie! Katie! Katie!
Katie! Katie! Katie!

I'm very excited to get there
and start working.

This was
going to be a big change

in terms of the powers that be
in Congress.

But how do you prepare
for your husband to betray you?

Hill had a relationship
with one of her staffers.

She had found
their dating profile--

looking for another woman.

Hill says
that all of this is pain

being inflicted from a divorce.

I thought that my ex was
just playing on his phone.

And suddenly
they were everywhere.

Was this famous case
of revenge porn.

I'm leaving because
of a misogynistic culture.

The level of harm
people can do on the internet

is so much greater than
anybody could have imagined.

There was not
even a day of break

of the relentless attacks
on her.

What you have now is
every dirty bastard in the world

trying to steal that image,

put it on the internet
because they make money.

A major hacking scandal

has rocked
the entertainment industry

after nude photos of celebrities
were posted online.

Jennifer Lawrence,
after "The Fappening,"

she told "Vanity Fair"
it wasn't a scandal.

It was a sex crime.

I think that quote
shifted culture.

People call it free speech
when, really, it's abuse.

Now we're just carrying around
a computer in our pockets.

This is just
the revolution of GPS

and geolocation apps
and all that stuff.

It just basically made
the entire world accessible

and, you know,
people's sex lives.

Most people,
especially most young people,

have a camera
in their pocket at all times.

So, people use
this new technology

to do one of the things
that people like to do,

which is for sexy purposes,

they take
naked pictures of themselves

and they send them
to one another.

Sometimes they use
their cameras

to film themselves having sex,

and they send that
to one another.

The nude photo
starts to become

a much more common technology
than it was before.

We've all taken pictures

that we don't want
people to see,

but we all
have an expectation,

if that's on our phone,
and it's private

or it's printed out
in our house,

that nobody's gonna
come into our house

and take our family photo
off the wall.

John Manley. I'm an attorney.

I represent survivors of
sexual abuse, and I advised

celebrities who were involved
in the 2014 hack.

A major hacking scandal

has rocked
the entertainment industry

after nude photos of celebrities
were posted online.

Jennifer Lawrence,
Kate Upton, Victoria Justice

were among a slew
of female celebrities.

Where did
these photos originate?

Celebgate--It was probably one

of the biggest internet
stories of the year.

So, the way that this sort of
came through, right, was

somebody posted
to this online message board.

This was in a particular
kind of forum for it,

saying that they had
celebrity nudes

and that they would post them
in exchange for Bitcoin.

The images went up.
People started spreading them.

These photos were being
posted links to them at least

to Reddit and Twitter
pretty much immediately, right?

So, I probably would have
heard about it

within 24 hours
of this happening.

Because it was viral,
because it involved

celebrities, theft, nude images,

because it involved
platform policy.

There is no legal protection

against news sources
publishing those photos

once the thief uploads them
or distributes them,

and that strikes me as insane.

The online storm
hit Fever Pitch

when it was given a name--
"The Fappening."

The term "The Fappening"
was being used primarily

on Reddit to describe this,
and it's a gross term

that focuses
on the reaction that certain men

are going to have
to viewing these photos.

The term that I used was
"Celebgate,"

which was
sort of a general term

in the "gate" format
of this is some sort of...

scandalous thing
that has happened.

I don't think
it's a perfect term because

it's not a scandal.
It's a theft.

But it was better
than "The Fappening."

"The Fappening"
was a big news story,

and the photos
were mostly like stills

they took of themselves
in the mirror,

but you couldn't avoid them.

I wasn't even trying
to see them.

If you were on social media,
they just appeared in your feed.

They were upsetting in a way
that other things hadn't

because they clearly looked like
you shouldn't be seeing them.

Even with the greatest examples

of things that we know

to be stolen footage,
whose participants,

at least one of them, says,
"I don't want you to watch this.

I don't want you to see this,"

if it's out there,
it's out there.

It was these two camps.

There was the correct messaging,
which was like,

"Do not look for these photos.
If you come across them,

make sure that you report
that tweet."

"Girls" star
Lena Dunham tweeting,

"The way in which you share
your body must be a choice.

Support these women and do not
look at these pictures."

And then there were obviously
the people who were going out

and seeking them and not
thinking about that at all.

But that other side, the side
that was talking about consent,

is far, far, far more vocal than
it was in the early aughts.

And so you get a lot more
of that, which is great.

Watson tweeted,

"Even worse than seeing women's
privacy violated on social media

is reading
the accompanying comments

that show
such a lack of empathy."

Gervais's comment is sort of
pretty classic victim blaming.

It's the abstinence-only method.

You know, the "Me Too" movement
didn't come out of nowhere.

There already was
a growing wind that there was

people predating on
each other without consenting,

and so consent was
in the winds as an issue.

It is very jarring
to watch something

go through the motions
of viral culture

when the thing that is being
spread is stolen photos

that are being shared
non-consensually

in order to perpetuate
some sort of misogynistic joy

from seeing
and distributing these.

went viral within minutes
of being posted.

Her representatives
responded by saying,

"This is a flagrant violation
of privacy.

The authorities
have been contacted

and will prosecute anyone
who posts the stolen photos."

The pictures were so candid,

you could
feel the vulnerability.

Jennifer Lawrence,
after "The Fappening,"

she told "Vanity Fair,"

it wasn't a scandal.
it was a sex crime.

I think that quote
shifted culture.

I think that celebrities
are able to bring awareness

to certain things that
people on the ground aren't.

Imagine your genitals being
exposed for everybody to see.

It's body shaming, fat shaming.

I don't think most people
want that to happen.

In most states,
it's not a serious crime,

and it should be.

In my view, it--it's no
different than a sexual assault.

It is an assault
by a different means,

and the law should reflect

the damage it does,
and the law doesn't.

You know? Then it becomes
the responsibility of the viewer

as to whether or not
you wanna partake in that

and watching that,

then it's your own
personal responsibility.

I think that's the shift.

You know, you have a bit
of personal responsibility,

and I think that is
clearer today than it was then.

A lot more people
were realizing

what was going on in
certain spaces online

for the first time.

Like, maybe this is
the first time

that a lot of people
heard about 4chan,

even though they'd been around

and had been doing stuff
for a while.

There are a lot of really vile,
really cruel things said

on social media,

but when you get to places
like Reddit

and to 4chan message boards,
really kind of anything goes.

You can say whatever
you want about people.

You can be nasty,
you can be hateful,

you can be misogynistic,

and you'll be protected
by other people

who are invested in your right

to express yourself
in such a way.

At the time that this happened,
I was a breaking news reporter.

I started really
digging into this when

we started to learn more

about how this happened
and who did it.

Hello. My name's Dale Beran.
I'm a writer and a journalist,

uh, and I'm here to guide you

into the worst places
on the Internet.

4chan began
in October of 2003,

started by a 15-year-old boy,

and it started as a way for him
and his teenage friends

to share jokes and talk about
anime and things like that,

up until about 2007,

when the trolling collectives
became a little notorious,

and then, uh, people
noticed internet memes,

and they wanted to
monetize them immediately.

And so at first, sort of memes
were associated with 4chan,

and they're like,

"Oh, 4chan has given us this
wonderful thing called memes."

And that was
at the start of social media.

So, there was sort of this
moment where they're like,

"Oh, maybe 4chan will be
like Facebook, right?

So 4chan was always
about powerless young men

and nerdy men exerting power

in any way they could,
usually in virtual spaces.

So, if they could hack someone,
if they could humiliate someone,

that was always
celebrated in the culture.

By 2014, 4chan had become
a place for toxic young men.

And so a lot of them--surprise--

didn't have girlfriends,
didn't have romantic partners,

and many of the early
incel communities were on 4chan.

"Incels," which is short
for "involuntary celibate,"

are men who hold

very disturbing ideas
about women and relationships.

They harbor
strong anti-woman biases,

and some of them have even

committed acts of violence
against women

in the name
of this incel identity.

They tend to be into, like,
the same things culturally,

and they have these gathering
places, like on the dark web,

where they can further
all of their bad ideas.

Tonight, Apple
revealing it was not a breach

in any of their systems,
including iCloud,

but instead
a very targeted attack

on certain celebrity accounts,
including

their usernames, passwords,
and security questions.

My understanding is that
they used a rather simple hack,

what's known as spear phishing.

So, they pretended to be
someone in charge at Apple

and texted these celebrities
and said,

"Hey, I'm, you know,
Apple security,

Apple tech support.

Will you just give me
your password to verify?"

So, that's essentially just
tricking someone

into giving
their credentials over.

And once that happened,
then they could get

into the iCloud accounts

and root around for whatever
they wanted to look for,

which was naked pictures
that the celebrities had taken

of themselves a lot of
the time and stuff like that.

A Pennsylvania man
agreed to plead guilty yesterday

for his part in
the nude photo hacking scandal.

So the five men responsible
for "The Fappening"

were prosecuted and imprisoned
for their actions.

These people
weren't working together.

Like a lot of things on 4chan,

once there started to be,
like, a culture

around the existence
of these photos

and trading them
and getting money for them,

they all kind of became
part of the same circle.

The first person who was
convicted was Ryan Collins.

Authorities
said that Ryan Collins

accessed at least
50 Apple iCloud accounts.

He pled guilty.
The second was Edward Majerczyk.

Edward Majerczyk of Chicago

admitted to sending emails
to victims

and asking for usernames and
passwords to iCloud accounts.

Served nine months.

There was Emilio Herrera,
and he served 16 months in jail.

So, then
there was George Garofano,

sentenced to eight months
in prison.

The last person charged
was Christopher Brannan,

who was a Virginia teacher.

He was accused not
just of illegally accessing

these accounts,
but also of identity theft.

So, that led
to a longer sentence.

He was sentenced
to 34 months in jail.

It took a leak of this magnitude
to see serious consequences

for a form of revenge porn,

which is something
that has not always been

taken very seriously by the law.

The fact that these hackers

got prosecuted for this
is pretty rare.

I think that was
a big cultural turning point.

The media did a better job.

They realized that the victims
were the celebrities

and that if you contrast that
with, say, years ago,

something very different
was happening.

The media, and it seemed like
popular culture

and people in general celebrated
taking women down a peg.

I think that, like,
the attention

that celebrities could
bring to this stuff

probably was instrumental
in getting these laws passed.

That said, this was footage that
you were never meant to see.

And there are laws.
There are revenge porn laws.

There are privacy laws.
There are copyright laws

that are all applied to these
cases, and yet you could still,

within 10 seconds, be watching
it right now if you Googled it.

We wanna see celebrities
so much as a society.

We wanna literally see
every ounce of them.

But looking
at somebody's naked image,

somebody having sex,

an image that was never
intended for you

and that was obtained illegally,

it's wrong,
and it's voyeuristic.

I think people
were excited at first,

and then they were shamed.

And that's maybe like
a good use of shame,

'cause we weren't
individually shamed.

We were shamed as a society.

If you stood outside
the celebrity's window

and watched them do this,

you'd be arrested
and hauled off to jail,

and everyone would call you
a pervert and a stalker.

If you watch it
in the privacy of your own home

and the image is stolen,
nobody does anything.

It's a normal act.

I know the sentences
were ridiculously light.

I think that, frankly,

the sentences have to be
much stronger,

and the--the consequences

to anybody who would promote
this material financially

would be a strong disincentive
to--to do it.

When an angry ex posts

nude photos of somebody online,

whose responsibility
is it to take that down?

Who is at fault for it?

This is exactly what happened
to Katie Hill.

California congresswoman,
Katie hill,

vice chair of the powerful
House Oversight Committee,

is under investigation
by the House Ethics Committee.

It was this famous case
of revenge porn.

Katie Hill is--She's cool,
she's charismatic, she's fun,

and she's very approachable
and kind.

She's also had a tough life.
She hasn't had it easy.

She had personal struggles
that kind of shaped her

into this very real person,
and when you interact with her,

that's what you see.

Here in
the Angeles National Forest

heading to Texas Canyon
to go climbing

for some team bonding.
It's gonna be great.

She is a born leader
since we were kids.

You know, she always was
the director of our plays

that we put together
on the street.

And she always was really clear
on what she wanted

and always pushed through
whatever obstacles

were in her way to get there.

When she first announced
her decision to run,

she was just 30 years old,
so very young.

And I think at the time,
you know,

there was a lot of questioning
around, is she fit for office?

Does she have enough experience?

Is this job
going to be too big for her?

You don't look like
most people in Congress.

Right.

We've got to change the face

of politics if we want
to really get people engaged.

I'm Katie Hill,
former member of Congress

from California's
25th Congressional District,

one of the youngest women
ever elected to Congress,

and I was forced to resign due
to image-based sexual abuse.

We're children of divorce,
so when I was about 7,

my parents got divorced,
and we moved to Santa Clarita.

I graduated
high school early.

I was 16 when I graduated,
and the reason I graduated early

is that I thought I was a lot
older than I was, you know?

But I, you know, I have
a history of sexual trauma.

It was early in my 16th year.

I snuck out of the house, and I
went to a party and I got drunk.

I was sexually assaulted,

and I felt that was
still at the time when

it was your fault
for letting yourself get drunk.

And, you know,
I was called a slut.

And in the guy's bathroom,
they had written, like,

"Call Katie for a good time,"
whatever.

I didn't know
what to do about it.

I didn't think about it
at that point as sexual assault.

I just thought, well, I was--
I should have known better.

It was only a few months later
that I met Kenny.

I got a job at Barnes & Noble,

and Kenny was working there, too.

He was older than I was.
He was 20.

That definitely played a big
part in why I latched onto him.

He felt like a safe space,
I guess.

And at that point, it was great

to get the kind of attention
that I was getting from him,

and it felt secure.

Things moved pretty fast,

and I was living with him
pretty fast.

I remember naively thinking

it was cool that someone
so much older was interested.

But very quickly, we started
to see a shift in Katie,

and concerns were raised.

The flags were there.
I just didn't see 'em.

She'd be hanging out with us,
and she'd get a call,

and "I have to go right now."

Why? It's not like you're
hanging out with random guys.

It's not like you're
hanging out with even friends.

Like, you're talking
your family.

She was always
on speakerphone. Always.

God forbid somebody
had a conversation

without him being involved
in it.

I witnessed a few fights
between them

where he stormed off,
screaming matches.

I really put my foot down and
said, "Something is very off.

I don't like
how controlling Kenny is."

My sister just doubled-downed

and said, "No, I'm happy.

I'm in love.
You're misreading it."

And we learned
to just support her

rather than try to fight her,

because she needed
to figure things out on her own.

A coworker at the time

brought up that she had found
their dating profile,

looking for another woman
to join their relationship.

I knew my sister was bi
at that point.

I came out about it
when I was about 18,

and it basically led to, like,

he said, "Okay, if you wanna
have relationships with women,

that's fine,
but I wanna be part of it."

And I think at the time,

I sort of saw it
as him being supportive.

But I do think that it's hard
to navigate for anyone who's bi,

but in a relationship with the--
the same sex or different sex,

like, you have to pick one.

We'd lived together and had been
together for six years.

So, I was 22
when we got married,

and, you know, my parents
had gotten married really young.

His parents had gotten married
really young.

And it felt like since we'd been
together for so long, like,

okay, this is what you do,
you know?

My thoughts were,
well, this is permanent.

And again,
you really--you hope they are.

You hope
she's telling the truth.

You hope that there's
a happily ever after.

But the concern never left.

So...

You just hope for the best.

But how do you prepare
for your husband

to betray you?

Whoever you're electing,
you're electing to be a leader,

and we have not nearly
enough leadership in Congress.

I was never planning on
going into politics.

That wasn't my dream
or anything like that.

I had actually worked
in the nonprofit sector

for my whole career.

I was
the chief operating officer

and executive director

of the largest homeless
services nonprofit in California

called PATH,
People Assisting the Homeless.

And then Donald Trump
was elected president.

USA! USA! USA! USA!

I believe that as a country,

we are better than this.

We say fight back!

The next day, I had my staff
coming into my office crying,

"What does this mean for us?
What are we gonna do?"

So, I felt like I needed
to do something about it.

Figured out that one of
the most competitive districts

in California and, in fact,
across the country,

was my district
where I'd spent my whole life.

I think it was at my mom's
dinner table that she's like,

"I think
I might run for Congress.

And I was like, "What?"

She's like,
"Yeah, there's an opening,"

and there's not a strong
Democratic candidate"

and duh-duh-duh-duh-duh.

And then
she became that candidate.

Hi. This is Katie Hill.

I'm calling because
I'm running for Congress.

In California's 25th District.

One of the key things to know is

Republicans had held that seat

for two decades prior
to her running.

I had no political experience
whatsoever.

I had no money.

It started off with just
a completely grassroots

with my friends and family,
and it grew and grew,

and started to really
kind of pick up steam.

But we all know that
public figures are torn apart.

We know the stress of it,
and we're committing

to actually having
a politician in the family.

Thank you so much. I'm sure
I'll see you again soon.

Becoming a public figure
is a wild experience.

I think you are the most
interesting and intriguing

and brilliant candidates...
- Oh. Thank you.

...running
in these midterm elections.

Thank you.

- For everyone who doesn't know--
- Thank you.

It's a tremendous amount
of pressure.

Katie was in the news
constantly...

Democrat Katie Hill...

This is about
people showing up.

...from the sheer volume
of funding

from her grassroots campaign
to the fact that she's so young.

Yes.

You know, we talked about...
it coming out,

that they were
in a polyamorous relationship.

It was kind of met with,
"That won't happen."

She was very open

around the fact
that she was bisexual

and was a bisexual
running for Congress.

And she really
embraced the fact that, no,

this is the generation
that she is a part of.

And I think it was viewed as
a bit of a reset

or a fresh start
to what Washington looks like.

And at the same time,

I had a lot going on
in my personal life.

I'd been in a relationship
with my ex

since I was 16 years old,
and it was not a good one.

And that deteriorated
and got worse and worse

as the campaign went forward.

So the bigger it got,
the worse things got at home.

He said,
"I don't want her running."

Her career has always
been very important to her,

and her drive and her success
has always been important.

So, I think that was one... part
that he couldn't control.

But at the same time, I think
the behavior did escalate

as he started
to feel me pulling away.

So, he--he became more
controlling and paranoid,

accusatory.

And my own awareness of,
like, I can live without him.

There is a--There is a life
outside of this

and a life that I wanna
have outside of this.

I think that was in October
of right before the election,

literally the month
before the election.

I actually
moved out of my house.

I was very aware of how...

...how precarious things were.

She actually packed up
and moved out.

And she took a decent amount
of her things

to my mom's house, and we really
thought it was the end.

And I stayed away
for a couple weeks,

And he said, "If you leave,
I'll ruin you."

And I didn't know
what it was, right?

Like, I didn't know
what he might do,

but I knew that it could be
very damaging,

and I knew that he was
so... vengeful at that point,

and I couldn't--
I couldn't risk that.

I know she felt a lot of
pressure to win.

Truly, like,
it genuinely felt like

control of Congress
comes down to this one seat,

and what if I can't win
because I decided

to leave my husband
in the middle of a campaign?

So, I went back.

Katie Hill wins.

Katie! Katie! Katie!

She wins the 25th District
in California,

and she heads to Washington.

I'm very excited to get there
and start working.

The day that I was sworn in,

yeah, my ex-husband
was there,

and he... refused to wear a tie.

If you zoom in on that picture
and look at his shoes,

they're, like, hiking shoes.

I was furious.

Here, her whole world
is opening up.

You know, new avenues,
new people, new experiences.

I was pretty high profile.

I was the vice chair
of Oversight.

I was the freshman
representative to leadership.

There had been an article
in "The L.A. Times," like,

"Is she the next Nancy Pelosi?"

This chapter with her husband,
Kenny Heslep,

that she wanted to close.

And I was afraid of what
would happen afterwards.

He did try to convince me,
but I was set at that point.

You know, I left in June.

That was, like, the happiest
I had ever been

that I could remember.

I took my little rest period
during summer recess,

and then I was
in a staff meeting,

and then all of a sudden,

my comms director
came running in and is like,

"Oh, my God,
you have to see this."

Conservative outlets
and tabloids

publishing nude pictures
of Hill online.

Hill says the nude photos
sparked thousands

of threatening emails,
calls, and texts.

I was like... holy [bleep].

Congresswoman
Katie Hill in the face

of an investigation
stemming from allegations

she had an inappropriate
sexual relationship

with one
of her congressional staffers.

Hill admits to a relationship
with a member of her campaign,

calling it inappropriate
but consensual.

The closeness of the campaign
and all the things

that are going on, like,
led to it.

But I ended up
having a relationship

with somebody who worked for me.

She engaged in
an inappropriate relationship

with a young campaign staffer.

I didn't understand
the power dynamics then.

I never once felt like,

"I'm trying to get her
to do something."

Didn't even cross my mind.

I thought that he would tell
people about the relationship

that I had with the person
who worked for me.

And I also thought
that he cared about her enough

that he wouldn't
want to do that to her.

Her ex-husband was aware

of that relationship
at the time and was part of it,

and as such, had documentation

that later was believed to have
been potentially leaked by him.

I was in a staff meeting
with my chief of staff,

and I think
my legislative director.

And then all of a sudden,
my comms director

came running in

and is like, "Oh, my God,
you have to see this."

Staff showed them to me, like,
"Is this real? Is this..."

You know? I'm like, that's me,

and I didn't know that these
photos existed, but, um,

and you can see in--
in most of the photos

I'm not looking at the camera.

Everybody knew.

These photos--
some of them depicted her

in various states of undress.
A lot of them, she was nude.

And they also showed her
interacting with the individual

that she was tied to, uh,
who worked on her campaign.

And again, you know,
they were nude

in some of these photos
or various states of undress.

I did not know he had
the images that he had.

Those were taken
without my knowledge.

There's one that I was looking,
but I thought

that my ex was
just playing on his phone,

and so I was just, like,
kind of being silly or whatever,

but I didn't have any idea
that he was taking a picture.

And so when they came out,
I was like, holy [bleep].

The "journalist" who published
them in "RedState,"

which is a right wing blog,
had previously been

a campaign manager
for my Republican opponent.

I guess what took me by surprise
the most with--

when the photos actually
came out

was I knew that Kenny was still
so vengeful at that point,

but I didn't think

that a publication would
actually give that traction,

and, um, and, uh, they sure did.

You kinda go--
you go into crisis mode

of, like, damage control

and trying to figure out
what to do.

They were in a relationship.

She was allowed
to be in our family.

We all did say it was
a bad idea.

Especially since it was
a "position of power"

and such a taboo thing
like a polyamorous relationship.

I just had a feeling
that it could blow up,

and despite it being
fully consensual

and a committed relationship
and everything else,

I just knew
it wouldn't be perceived well.

I am deeply regretful
for what she's been through

because of this and how she was
exposed during the scandal.

Hill claims she is
a victim of a smear campaign

launched by her ex-husband.

They are
in the middle of a divorce.

Kenny was liberal, too, definitely.

He was--and he--
he genuinely, like,

I think, believed in a lot
of the same things that I did.

So, I guess
I didn't really expect him

to collaborate with and he--

and--and to be clear,
he still denies this. He's...

He--He does, um, but I know.
I know what happened.

It became very quickly, like,
I'm not leaving my apartment.

And then
it's trying to figure out,

like, what do you--
what do you do from here?

Like, I really didn't
wanna resign at first,

and it just got darker
and darker for me,

and it became... too much.

She had no idea
these photos were being taken,

which should, to the public,
be even more of a red flag,

but it was completely ignored.

It was wild, and yeah,
she was horribly embarrassed.

We all know that everyone
we know has seen her naked.

My dad--he was a lieutenant
at the time, became a captain.

All of his co-workers
saw her naked.

Everyone you know has seen
your daughter naked. Like...

I can't fathom that.

The photos of Katie Hill
were first released

in about mid-October of 2019.

So, that's roughly about
10 months into her tenure

in the House of Representatives.

And suddenly, once they had been
published, they were everywhere.

They were all over Twitter.
They were all over social media.

And it's like a wildfire.

It breaks my heart that

nobody took into consideration
that she was going

through a horrible professional
and public humiliation.

And the internet
was still so cruel.

There was not
even a day of break

of the relentless attacks
on her, and it just--

it makes you want to ask,
how, as a society,

have we just allowed ourselves
to become so cruel?

It's traumatic
for everyone involved,

not just the person
that goes through it.

I was genuinely suicidal,
and after that,

I decided I needed to step down.
Like, I just--this wasn't

something that I could continue
to go through, and, um,

so I called Nancy Pelosi
to tell her first,

and she tried to talk me
out of it.

And she even called me back
a little later and said,

"Even if you just--

if--if you just decide
not to run for re-election,

you just stay on
for the rest of the term,"

but she--she--she really didn't,

you know, she didn't want me
to step down.

Freshman Katie Hill
just announced she is resigning

amid a bizarre scandal involving
racy photos

and an alleged affair.

They said that there
were hundreds of photos,

and basically they were
just gonna keep releasing stuff

until I stepped down.

It was important to me to give
a meaningful resignation speech,

and so I--it kind of
took everything I had to--

to write that I wanted
to write it myself.

I no longer wanna be
used as a bargaining chip.

I'm leaving because
I didn't want to be peddled

by papers and blogs and websites
used by shameless operatives

for the dirtiest gutter politics
that I've ever seen.

And I am proud of the fact
that I was able to stand up

on the House floor
and give that last speech.

I'm leaving because
of a misogynistic culture

that gleefully consumed
my naked pictures,

capitalized on my sexuality,

and enabled my abusive ex
to continue that abuse,

this time with
the entire country watching.

Hill has threatened
legal action

over the publication
of nude pictures,

also racy text messages
published by a tabloid,

and a spread
on conservative websites.

After talking to lawyers,

I decided
that I needed to file something.

If we don't do anything
about it,

like, we're just saying
it's okay.

We're saying it's okay
to do this to people,

so I used personal money.
I raised money to pay for it.

Uh, and I knew
that it wasn't without risk.

Forget about me,
all the other people.

And the case basically
had to do

with the balancing of
the free press against privacy.

I personally am more on the side
of she gets to decide

what images of herself
are disseminated.

The other side of the argument
is that she is a public figure.

As a public figure,

it is understood that there is
an interest in this story.

It if an argument can be made
that the pictures

are an essential element
of the story

and there is
a First Amendment right,

I understand that argument.

They had the full right to say,

"We have seen images

that show that she's in
a relationship with this person.

We've talked to witnesses,"

or there were images
that were not explicit

that could have shown
the exact same thing,

if you're saying that
this is my liability

or this is my offense,
and that's not what they did.

Judge has dismissed former
Congresswoman Katie Hill's

lawsuit
against the "Daily Mail."

The judge cited
First Amendment grounds

in the ruling yesterday.

I lost,
and I lost on the grounds

that I was a public figure,
and those were journalists,

and the images
were widely spread.

After these photos
were released,

I was able to write stories
or "Vanity Fair"

or these other outlets,
"The New York Times," CNN,

"Washington Post"--
pick an outlet.

We were able to write
about the allegations

without showing
any of these photos,

and that's what
it comes back to.

The question becomes, okay, what
are we trying to achieve here?

Do you need to release
those photos to tell this story

and to raise questions
as to whether this person should

or should not hold an office
in the House of Representatives?

It's almost like we need,
like, a supreme internet judge

sitting there saying, uh,
"I will look at your story.

I will look at what happened,

and I will decide
if this is all right."

Uh, I actually
would support that.

I mean, it'd be easier than
the way we do it right now,

which is hire
a bunch of lawyers,

pay an offensive amount of
money, go to court, have a judge

who probably doesn't even know
how to turn his computer on,

and he's sitting there
deciding internet law for us.

In my case,
you are responsible

for the legal fees
of the people that you sued.

And in my case, that was several
hundred thousand dollars,

and I had to declare bankruptcy
because of it.

I can't say that bankruptcy
has been easy,

and I just finished it,
am finally clear of it.

I am taking
personal responsibility

by stepping down
and by trying to prevent

what I did from harming
other people in the caucus.

But it's still wrong,
and it's an example of how

the system is still
so deeply misogynistic

and does things to women
that it doesn't do to men.

I think the fact that Katie Hill
was a woman,

that she was a politician,

that she was
a bisexual politician,

had a lot to do with the outcome
of that trial.

Male politicians are held to
a different standard than women.

I think a lot of people
expect them to have

scandals somewhere in their past

or perhaps
in their present-day lives.

But women politicians
are expected to

occupy a different standard.

They're supposed to be moral
and upstanding and buttoned up,

and the less we know about
their sexual lives, the better.

The unfortunate thing
about the Katie Hill thing is

she was a Democrat
in a highly contested seat, um,

so her political opponents
took advantage of it.

But I think we really need
to think about as a country

and as a society,
where does privacy fit in?

We do need to talk
about the ways in which

we can regulate these platforms

to prevent against these crimes,
which are crimes.

It is a crime to release,
you know,

non-consensual pornography,
aka revenge porn.

Something positive
has to come out of this,

and so I started a PAC
called HER Time.

My fight right now
with HER Time,

the organization I founded,
is to pass the SHIELD Act.

We don't
have a federal law at all

that prevents people
from committing these acts

of non-consensual,
intimate image distribution.

We as a society have
to say that this isn't okay.

And if you don't have
a law in the book saying so,

there's no reason to believe
that that's the case.

I wish that people knew that I,
um, I never entered politics

because I wanted power
or because I thought

that I should be
a member of Congress.

I did it because
I genuinely felt like

I needed to try
and improve our country.

I've gone through
a great deal of loss and trauma,

and I'm a person that at 35,
I'm a mom.

I'm so happy to be a mom.
I love my family.

I'm still trying to figure out
what my part is to play

in this quest to search
for a better future.

We will not stand down.

We will not be broken.

We will not be silenced.

We will rise, and we will make
tomorrow better than today.

Thank you, and I yield
the balance of my time for now,

but not forever.

It's really hard to say what
a sex tape is like

in the age of OnlyFans.

If you have a big social media
following and you turn 18,

you're contemplating whether
you're gonna be a porn star.

You might recognize me from
shows like "Boy Meets World."

Hey, do you guys have any
toothpaste that I could borrow?

I'm a former Disney Channel
celebrity

turned adult entertainer.

That's a thing.

Celebrities
are taking to OnlyFans,

I think because
there's an ease of usage,

there's less of a stigma
about doing OnlyFans.

People are crazy.
They screen grab.

They screenshot.
It's going to live forever.

I've had a lot of time
to fully comprehend

that this is gonna have
long-lasting repercussions

on the rest of my life.

The decisions I'm making today
will affect me forever.