Little is known, and nothing has taken place of yet, but a tweet sent from site owner Craig Brittain’s account tells the tale as well as any: As of today, revenge porn site IsAnybodyDown.com is no more.
It’s safe to say only one person will miss it.
The controversial site, which posted anonymously submitted nude photos featuring individuals who had not consented to having their pictures posted online, has waged a war against dozens of detractors since November 2012. That’s when news first broke that a Massachusetts first amendment attorney named Marc Randazza was trying to take down the site on the grounds that Brittain was extorting his victims.
That extortion came through the practice of removing photos and information. On his site, Brittain advertised that an attorney named David Blade was the only individual who could properly help get victims’ photos removed from the site. But that removal came at a cost of $250, and Blade, who Brittain claimed lived in New York, was impossible to find online, and was not registered as a member of the New York bar.
Brittain remained steadfast in his argument that IsAnybodyDown was “entertainment,” telling Colorado Springs’ CBS4 that “There are plenty of websites of this type” and that “We realized that we could make changes and modifications to [the site] that would make it more neutral, more acceptable, more fair. We would be representing the people and their interests.”
Still, the site had its critics. Last week, an anonymous hacktivist known on Twitter as “Funny Bear” ran an IP address locator test to prove that Blade and Brittain were the same person—or at least operated out of the same location, Brittain’s Colorado Springs, Colo. address.
“It MUST be the same person reviewing both submissions and takedown requests,” Funny Bear wrote to the Daily Dot after demonstrating the accuracy of that same IP locator test on one of our email addresses. “There is no denying Craig is the Takedown Hammer.”
On Thursday, Brittain took to Twitter to state that his decision to end IsAnybodyDown was “a personal decision.”
“A number of reasons contributed to my decision to end IsAnybodyDown,” he wrote. “Mostly my personal feelings. The realization that my life is empty without love and friendship is really the biggest motivating factor behind the change. It isn’t so much that I had a change of heart.
“I’m not like Hunter Moore who struggles with guilt or regret,” he continued, alluding to the unofficial godfather of revenge porn, the creator of IsAnyoneUp. “I’m just lonely. Very, very lonely. I was bullied as a child. You can read about it on my personal website, which I won’t be shutting down.”
He closed by saying that he’s working on an autobiography as well as a book co-authored by IAD co-creator Chance Trahan.
The latter will detail “the in-depth events of the past ten years of our lives working in [information technology] (long before IAD).”
Brittain did not respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment.
Photo via IsAnybodyDown
