Keeping it Together: The danger of nude photos leaking

Chris Olsen is screaming. Crying. Bereft.

The 26-year-old gay TikTok personality – known for paling around with celebrities like Meghan Trainor – has finally had enough of the bullying and harassment he's faced online.

Hi, my name is David Oliver, and I'm a Paste BN wellness reporter with an important message. A portion of said bullying is coming from fellow gay men, a fact that may seem shocking at first blush to a general audience. But it's not shocking if you've spent time in that space online. People dunk on each other left and right. Sometimes it's innocent, arguing about who the best pop girlie is. But a lot of the time it's cruel.

Olsen, for example, is alleging that people are leaking his nudes or finding them online and sending them to him as blackmail (48 states and Washington, D.C., have passed legislation against nonconsensual pornography, or revenge porn, as of October 2023). Paste BN has reached out to Olsen for comment.

Why are people so horrible to each other, especially people in the same community? Experts theorize it's a combination of factors related to the rise of social media, a generation unburdened by the worst of the AIDS epidemic and changing laws and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people. As common enemies and threats fall away gay men may turn against each other to cope with their traumas, from lighthearted memes to cyberbullying to even the aforementioned revenge porn.

For more on this story, read it here. And take your time with other stories from the team below.