The porn site Is Anyone Up has gone from sick revenge tool to quirky self-promotion vehicle to international Internet phenomenon. The site may not be even remotely safe for work, but it’s comedic fodder for the folks at Next Media Animation, the Taiwanese video creators known for their zany yet surprisingly lucid explanations of tech news.
NMA’s work-friendly news report goes far in expatiating Is Anyone Up’s business model. Its YouTube posting reminds viewers: “Think before you sext! The revenge porn website isanyoneup allows anyone to submit nude pictures of real people anonymously. The website’s founder, Hunter Moore, posts the nude pics online with the victim’s Facebook profile and full name for maximum embarrassment.”
Is Anyone Up’s fans give the site schadenfreude-laden support on Twitter. One man tweeted, “Wow, I was worried there for a second.. After too long with nothing, great to see @isanyoneup back up n runnin! Thank you, Sir Moore ; ) ”
Another justified Moore’s actions as a kind of societywide tough love: “I knew Hunter Moore was onto something when he said isanyoneup was a lesson to kids about having/using camera phones.”
But the real revelation of the video is that even though Forbes and other publications have been writing about the site since July and Moore has made TV appearances defending his site, a lot of people still don’t know about his revenge-porn operation.
“Sometimes I’m glad I’m unaware of the newest Internet fad,” wrote fridaysindetroit on YouTube.
“Glad I don’t take pictures of me or my GF naked, and I’m even more glad I don’t have Facebook,” commented F0nkyNinja.
So it may take a Taiwanese animation to wake Americans up to the latest danger to their privacy. What does that say about how naked and defenseless we are?
