August 24, 2016

Bigoted Attack on Actress Leslie Jones Continues, as Hackers Post Photos and Personal Info

It’s “racist & sexist,” tweets Questlove. “It’s disgusting.”

Leslie Jones<a href="http://www.zumapress.com/zpdwnld/20160803_zaf_rx3_2165.jpg?type=hires">Wwd</a>/Rex Shutterstock via ZUMA Press

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Update (8/25/2016): The Department of Homeland Security has announced that it is investigating the breach of Leslie Jones’ personal website.

Comedian and SNL star Leslie Jones has been targeted once again with aggressive online harassment. Today, hackers who broke into her personal website posted what appear to be nude photos and images of her passport and driver’s license. (Whether the explicit photos and ID images are real has not been confirmed.) The hackers also posted on Jones’ website—which was taken offline after the hack was discovered—a picture of Harambe, the gorilla shot and killed recently at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Last month, Jones was the target of a deluge of online abuse related to her co-starring role in the reboot of Ghostbusters. Some of the harassment involved racial slurs and photos of gorillas posted to her Twitter feed. Breitbart News technology editor Milo Yiannapolous—whose antics are detailed by Sara Posner in her recent piece on his boss, Trump campaign director Stephen Bannon—was banned from Twitter for helping incite the torrent of racist trolls. Jones has yet to comment on the hack but described her previous experience as her own “personal hell.”

Jones later reappeared on Twitter to post updates about the Olympics. During that time, she defended gymnast Gabby Douglas from an onslaught of online harassment, which began after Douglas stood at attention during the national anthem rather than placing her hand on her heart. After her website was hacked, supporters quickly came to her defense on social media. Here’s musician Questlove and Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton:

OUR DEADLINE MATH PROBLEM

It’s risky, but also unavoidable: A full one-third of the dollars that we need to pay for the journalism you rely on has to get raised in December. A good December means our newsroom is fully staffed, well-resourced, and on the beat. A bad one portends budget trouble and hard choices.

The December 31 deadline is drawing nearer, and if we’re going to have any chance of making our goal, we need those of you who’ve never pitched in before to join the ranks of MoJo donors.

We simply can’t afford to come up short. There is no cushion in our razor-thin budget—no backup, no alternative sources of revenue to balance our books. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the fierce journalism we do. That’s why we need you to show up for us right now.

payment methods

OUR DEADLINE MATH PROBLEM

It’s risky, but also unavoidable: A full one-third of the dollars that we need to pay for the journalism you rely on has to get raised in December. A good December means our newsroom is fully staffed, well-resourced, and on the beat. A bad one portends budget trouble and hard choices.

The December 31 deadline is drawing nearer, and if we’re going to have any chance of making our goal, we need those of you who’ve never pitched in before to join the ranks of MoJo donors.

We simply can’t afford to come up short. There is no cushion in our razor-thin budget—no backup, no alternative sources of revenue to balance our books. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the fierce journalism we do. That’s why we need you to show up for us right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate