The Most Hated Man on the Internet – Netflix‘s latest true crime docuseries – arrived on the streamer today, looking at the downfall of self-proclaimed professional life ruiner Hunter Moore.
The three-parter explores how Moore’s revenge porn website IsAnyoneUp.com, which published nude photographs of men and women often without their permission, was eventually shut down thanks to campaigners and law enforcement.
Someone who takes on a prominent role in the series is Charlotte Laws – an author and former actress who decided to take down Moore after a nude photograph of her daughter was stolen from her email account and uploaded to the website.
“The one thing [Moore] didn’t anticipate that there would be somebody out there like Charlotte Laws,” journalist Camille Dodero says in the documentary. “He anticipated everything else, but he never expected an angry mother to be his undoing.”
Here’s everything you need to know about Charlotte Laws and how she contributed to the conviction of Hunter Moore.
Who is Charlotte Laws?
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Charlotte Laws is an American anti-revenge porn activist living in Los Angeles, who campaigned to get nude photographs of her daughter and other victims taken off of Hunter Moore’s website.
Laws is also a former politician, author, presenter and actress, having previously acted under the stage name Missy Laws.
While she appeared in a few television shows and films, she rose to fame after writing her 1988 book Meet the Stars, appearing on Larry King Live, Oprah Winfrey and other talkshows to promote the book on how to succeed in the entertainment industry.
Laws also wrote a memoir in 2015, in which she revealed that she began gate crashing parties as a teenager, and claimed that she began a three-year romance with singer Tom Jones when she was 18 years old.
Laws is also a political analyst and has appeared as a contributor on BBC News, the Al Jazeera network and the Victoria Derbyshire show.
As seen in The Most Hated Man on the Internet, Laws is married to English barrister Charles Parselle and has a daughter, actress Kayla Laws, whose nude photographs were stolen from her email account and posted on IsAnyoneUp.com, the revenge porn website founded by Moore.
After being told by Kayla about the photographs, Charlotte began fighting for them to be taken down and worked with the FBI to have Moore arrested.
How did she take down Hunter Moore?
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When Kayla Laws’s email and Facebook accounts were hacked, topless photographs of her were published on IsAnyoneUp.com along with her name, location and social media handles. After Kayla told her mother about the photos, Charlotte Laws contacted Moore and asked him to take down the photograph, with the publishing of it violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, however he ignored this.
After writing to Moore’s lawyer, hosting service, Facebook and his internet security company, Laws started researching Moore and found that he had marketed himself as an internet bad-boy, speaking to Rolling Stone and other publications, and claimed to be making $30,000 a month.
“There was this sense of: ‘Oh, he’s just a bad boy, but he’s OK.’ A lot of people out there thought he was weird but probably harmless,” Laws told The Guardian. “And the victims weren’t being heard. I called a couple of journalists and said: ‘There’s another point of view. You’re glorifying Hunter Moore.’ And they’d say: ‘Well, what victim can I interview?’ And I’d say: ‘The victims don’t want to come forward.’ So it was either I do it, or no one would.”
Laws got in touch with the Los Angeles police before contacting the FBI, who became interested in the case due to the hacking element. Laws’s husband Charles Parselle then spoke to Moore’s legal representation and said that the FBI were involved. When a fax came through on the fax machine, presumably from fans of Moore, threatening to rape and kill Charlotte, Parselle decided to get involved.
“I told [Hunter Moore’s attorney] copyright law is clear,” he tells the documentary. “The photo belonged to Kayla. The photograph had been stolen, so it was clearly theft.
“And I told him it would cost his client huge fees, whereas my client, who was my stepdaughter, had a free lawyer. That was her piece of good fortune. I said, ‘This is a really good deal for your client. All he has to do is remove one picture from his site. And if he doesn’t, I will file action, and it will cost him thousands…You’ve got 30 minutes to get it done.’”
While the photo was removed from the website, Laws wanted to get justice for other victims of Moore’s. She began speaking to victims in order to build a case against him, telling The Mail on Sunday: “I started adding to my collection of evidence and the file was 12 inches thick.”
As seen in the documentary, Laws confronted Moore during one of his talk show appearances after Is Anyone Up? was bought and shutdown by James McGibey. When Moore revealed plans to set up a new site which would detail victims’ home addresses and directions on how to get there, Laws shared his address on Twitter, resulting in the anti-revenge porn advocate being trolled.
Laws helped the FBI with their case and in 2014, the FBI charged Moore with aggravated identity theft and aiding and abetting in the unauthorised access of a computer.
In 2015, Moore was sentenced to 30 months in prison, a $2,000 fine and $145.7 in restitution.
The Most Hated Man on the Internet is available to stream on Netflix now. Looking for more to watch? Check out our TV Guide.
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