Some people who were alive and online in 2010 somehow managed to avoid the goings-on of Hunter Moore, the founder of the revenge porn site Is Anyone Up? If you were one of those people, Netflix has arrived to make sure you weren’t getting too optimistic about humanity with its docuseries The Most Hated Man on the Internet. The three-part miniseries premiered on July 27 and is already one of Netflix’s top shows. Unsurprisingly, viewers are hitting social media, with reactions as visceral as you’d expect when talking about someone worthy of such a title.
The Most Hated Man on the Internet chronicles Charlotte Laws’ efforts to get her daughter’s topless photos removed from Is Anyone Up? and shut down the site. Hunter Moore was given the titular nickname by Rolling Stone in a 2012 article about the self-proclaimed “professional life ruiner.” On his site, Moore allowed anonymous users to post explicit photos of people without their consent, often including their names and addresses. As you can imagine, Netflix subscribers had thoughts as they started watching the docuseries, and one word seemed to be coming up a lot: vile. For some Twitter users, that’s simply all there was to say:
The Most Hated Man on the Internet on Netflix is…I don’t even know what to say tbh other than this man is a vile fuckin person
It’s 2022, and we’ve all seen some terrible things go down. Especially with so many true crime documentaries on Netflix right now, it takes something pretty extreme to work Twitter users like this one up to thinking this might be the worst thing they’ve seen on the streaming service:
I have seen some crazy shit on Netflix. But the most hated man on the internet might be the worst. This is just foul. This guy is vile.
Viewers were not put off by Hunter Moore’s actions alone, but also by the many supporters he had. This person pointed out how scary it is that so much evil exists:
Having one sociopath like Hunter Moore is one thing but the THOUSANDS of vile men and women who supported this guy is actually scary! how are there so many rotten individuals out there?!
If you think a guy who started a revenge porn site and delighted in the humiliation and abuse of others isn’t going to try to capitalize on a docuseries that features him, you are very optimistic — and very wrong. This viewer tweeted that we should not be supporting this kind of person in 2022:
‘The most hated man on the internet’ just hit Netflix today and Hunter Moore is already hitting the socials trying to gain notoriety again 🤢🤢🤢 if you still think this dude is cool in 2022 you are brain dead
Society as a whole has seemingly progressed over the past decade in at least being able to acknowledge that victims should not be blamed for the crimes committed against them. The Most Hated Man on the Internet reminded this person of how rampant it used to be:
I’m watching ‘the most hated man on the internet’ on netflix and this man is actually vile. it’s so sick how, not that long ago, victim blaming was so normal
There were some comments about the miniseries that weren’t just straight disbelief about the revenge porn site. Some viewers found humor in the way people talked about the Internet circa 2012, and wanted to remind “scene kids” that they weren’t the first Internet users:
Watching the Netflix doc ‘The Most Hated Man on the Internet’ and it's hilarious watching these 30 year old former scene kids talking about being on the internet in 2012 like they were the earliest netizens.
Another Twitter user found it amusing that some on the docuseries didn’t seem to think that Internet trolls existed before 2012:
I’m watching Netflix’s The Most Hated Man On The Internet, and I’m rolling my eyes a little at the grown up scene kids saying things like ‘it went viral before viral was viral!’, ‘the internet was this lawless place’ and ‘He was the first internet troll!’ It was 2012.
Alas, some who binged the entire three-ish hours on its first day found the positive message in the story, where good guys come out on top, and the sadistic trolls have their own corner in hell. This Twitter user said:
I just watched that ‘Most hated man on the internet’ documentary on Netflix about Hunter Moore and his revenge porn website. It was awesome. Score one for the good guys. There’s a special place in hell for internet trolls like that who enjoy humiliating people. Must watch
Whether you think The Most Hated Man on the Internet is, in fact, a “must watch” is completely up to you and, likely, your blood pressure. You can catch the three-episode miniseries on Netflix, and be sure to check out some of the other best shows on Netflix, as well as the 2022 Netflix TV schedule and 2022 TV premiere schedule to see what’s coming up.
