Army of Reddit Creepers Internet Stalk Female Olympic Volunteer

After photos of an attractive, midriff-bearing Olympic volunteer were published by a couple of American photo services, some Reddit denizens took notice. A lot of notice. So much notice, in fact, that they tracked down her name, social media presence, and dozens of photos of her, which they compiled into a hand spank bank. All without the woman’s knowledge or permission.

The cycle of skeeve directed at the Sochi volunteer began last week, when she was photographed by the Associated Press with the following unidentifying caption.

A volunteer enjoys the warming sun as temperatures went over the freezing point beside a writing reading ‘Sochi 2014 – Hot. Cool.Yours’ prior to the women’s 10K classical-style cross-country race at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2014, in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

After the photo was published in a couple of high profile places — including the Washington Post — a few people couldn’t help but notice that the volunteer was a rather nubile looking young lady. The picture was posted to some of the pic-heavy and Olympic-themed subreddits with mildly creepy but ultimately harmless commentary about how totes bangable she was.

But then stuff went too far, according to Aja Romano at The Daily Dot. Some users, apparently driven mad with lust at the sight of a woman’s exposed midsection, took it upon themselves to figure out her name, which they were able to do by scouring other photo services for a picture of the young woman that included her volunteer ID badge. From there, users found her social media accounts, which were public because this woman had no reason to think a bunch of internet dudes would be skimming her profile pics to add to their spank banks. A few redditors eagerly compiled images of the young woman into a gallery which they then shared on Reddit. Here’s Romano:

On r/Ohlympics, members of the Reddit community roundly criticized the compilation of the photo gallery. But such incidents are all too familiar in an online forum where a rule against publishing personal information is disregarded because, hey, she’s hot. Not to mention Reddit’s “creepshots” problem: This is a site where sexualized images of women and underage girls are spread freely, without the subjects’ consent—and with Reddit admins’ tacit approval.

Weirdest episode of How I Met Your Mother ever.

The creepshots problem isn’t limited to this one Russian girl; as The Daily Dot noted last week, after uproar over Creepshots shut down the controversial subreddit in 2012, other pretty much identical subreddits have thrived on the site unabated. Same shit, different URL! And no one cares, because dudes want to make jerking off a social activity, and women aren’t people.