This man wants to ruin your life.

You need to think twice about sending a naked picture of yourself. Actually you need to think as many time as it takes before you decide NOT TO DO IT. And if you think it’s safe, or “cute” or romantic just read this.  Social commentator and soon to be author Nina Funnell writes:

Facebook is currently threatening legal action against a particularly vile blog that posts people’s naked photos alongside screenshots of their Facebook profile page. While some people submit their own images to the site, many disgruntled ex partners also submit photographic souvenirs from failed relationships in a genre known as “revenge porn”.

What makes this particular site different to other revenge-porn (or ‘ex-girlfriend porn’) sites is that in posting the victims’ Facebook profiles,  Hunter Moore the blog owner identifies his victims, giving their full name and other identifying information including location, school, workplace and screenshots of other clothed images of them.

Here’s a video of Hunter Moore being interviewed by Anderson Cooper:

Many women have pleaded for their images to be pulled down having suffered extreme humiliation, violation, betrayal and the deep fear that any of the sites 200, 000 visitors a day might physically track them down and harm them.

But, the owner of the blog, Hunter Moore declares that his victims deserve the humiliation and that he is teaching them a lesson. “It comes down to, you’re fucking stupid and I’m making money off your mistakes,” he said. When victims have complained he has responded by saying he will never back down; “I don’t give a f—. I’m never going to stop” he said.  Hunter routinely refers to women as sl*ts, bitches and whores- and these are some of his nicer names for women. He also brags about his sexual conquests by insulting the women he has slept with.

Recently, during an audio interview I had the audacity to suggest that Hunter Moore is “a misogynist” who “shows no empathy or compassion for his victims”, and who has “demonstrated no remorse”. Big mistake. I was immediately attacked by fans of his, including Adam K who emailed me the following:

I saw your comments on The Age website about Hunter Moore and found what you said to be ridiculous. To claim that Hunter Moore is a misogynist because he allows users to submit photos of other people naked shows a level of ignorance like no other. There are no restrictions whether it is male or female photos that can be submitted, so how does this make this man a misogynist? Your comments are reverse sexism and I would go as far as saying you are a misandrist.

Adam’s problem seems to be that because Hunter also posts images of men (often with homophobic slurs next to them) that this somehow eradicates any suggestion of misogyny. In other words, because he is a jerk to both sexes, this somehow excuses his ongoing misogynistic language, threats and treatment of women.

Adam continues:

Perhaps you shouldn’t call yourself a ‘social commentator’ if you then go and complain about feedback relating your comments (sic). The fact is you called him a misogynist without know (sic) all the facts…Do everyone a favour and don’t do anymore (sic) interviews, no one cares about your opinion.

(I have decided not to name Adam in full or to publish his workplace- just because individuals like Adam and Hunter Moore might show no regard for the privacy and safety of others, this doesn’t mean we all have to stoop that low.).

And this is the ultimate problem. For every Hunter Moore who actually goes so far as to make a website like this, there will be a thousand Adam K’s: individuals who see nothing wrong with what he is doing. And nothing wrong with sending your photo to be published on sites like this.

If you think Hunter Moore is scary, just think of the 200,000 people who choose to visit that site a day.

Nina Funnell is a social commentator and freelance opinion writer. You can follow her on Twitter.