Netflix’s The Most Hated Man On The Internet has just landed on the platform and it may be a chilling tale about misogyny and revenge porn – but it’s unlikely hero story is one of the main reasons to watch it.
The Netflix documentaries, especially as of late, have been chilling and addictive in the way we’ve come to expect from the streaming platform. But its latest offering, The Most Hated Man On The Internet, will most certainly leave you completely exasperated – but its unlikely heroine is one of the main reasons to watch it.
The new three-part docuseries explores self-proclaimed “professional life ruiner” Hunter Moore, who got his kicks – and his cash – from founding the site IsAnyoneUp.com. The site went from strength to strength, gaining popularity at the speed of light in the early 00s because it fed into a pervasive culture of publishing explicit pictures all in the name of revenge. Moore was, as you’d expect such a man to be, completely unashamed and proud of his online creation. In one interview, he proudly proclaimed: “If someone killed themselves over being on Is Anyone Up?, do you know how much money I’d make?”
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Photos were posted anonymously on to the site, by exes, friends and the like, for all to see. And we all know that what happens on the internet, stays on the internet. The site was set up to anger Moore’s ex-girlfriend, who he referred to as “a b***h who broke my heart”, in a very public way and instead of sending nude photos of her to his friend via text message (still not OK), he opted to share them on his newly created site.
Throughout the series, we’re treated (a term that is used very loosely here) to clips of Moore being sexually explicit, talking about sleeping with people’s girlfriends and being the kind of misogynist that gets his confidence from belittling women in a public sphere.
While the documentary does a good job of painting Moore’s character and exposing just how extensive his influence went – he built up a cult-like following very fast – the series doesn’t centre on Moore at all. Instead, like previous Netflix releases Girl In The Picture and Keep Sweet: Pray And Obey, it gives a crucial voice to the victims at the centre of Moore’s crimes.
One of them being Charlotte Laws, the mother of Kayla, who had her photos posted on the site without permission. While most of the pictures posted on the site were done without any form of permission, Kayla was shocked to see her photos up there when she hadn’t sent them to anyone. The documentary takes a more sinister turn when it comes to light that, actually, many women believed they were being hacked. Kayla talks about her ordeal, being locked out of her email account (where she had sent photos of herself to) and then being contacted by friends to reveal that they were on IsAnyoneUp.com being criticised and spoken about by strangers in the comments section.
Kayla sought to get her images taken down and was met with Moore’s classic indignation. What Moore wasn’t betting on, though, was coming across her mother Charlotte.
When the mother-daughter duo went to the LA police to report the crime, they were met with confusion and were dismissed. So, like any classic maternal figure, Charlotte embarked on a two-year journey to take Moore down. She spoke to countless women who had gone through the same experience, building up a dossier of information and eventually taking her findings to the FBI. Agents were shocked by how much evidence Laws gathered but her instincts about the suspected hacking were well-founded and an investigation was eventually launched.
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What’s most surprising about the case is the fact that if it wasn’t for one mother’s intuition and unflinching determination to get justice for her daughter, Moore perhaps would have gone unnoticed by authorities. He would have most certainly continued to build his online fame, a thought that doesn’t bear thinking about.
Watching The Most Hated Man On The Internet, especially as a woman, unveils the kind of nightmare that many of us can’t even begin to imagine. To have intimate photos of yourself shared without any warning, permission or care, for friends, family, strangers and employers to see, is terrifying.
It’s the kind of viewing that will leave you squirming but the first-hand accounts are what make this documentary more endearing. Rather than focus on the man at the centre of this crime – as many true crime documentaries do – you’re not left even really thinking about Hunter Moore. Instead, we’re presented with women who were impacted and conned by Moore, but refused to let him affect their lives in the long term.
And you just can’t help but smile whenever Charlotte Laws comes on the screen because as well as being a force to be reckoned with, she really is the heroine at the heart of this story.
The Most Hated Man On The Internet is available to stream on Netflix now.
Images: Netflix
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