If you were looking to end your 2014 on a creepy note, know that a man whose online username is DonkCam1 has been taking photos of women on the D.C. metro, most likely with something as unsuspecting as a cell phone, and uploading them to porn site xHamster.com without their knowledge or consent. Often, these photos are tagged with the words and phrases #voyeurism, #sluts, and #yesteens and have more than 13,000 views on the site. Metro spokesperson Caroline Laurin told the Washington Post on Tuesday that transit officials are aware of the problem and are continuing to investigate, as users on Reddit and Twitter are urging people to call Metro Police if they see suspicious activity.
To make things worse, there's no action that can actually be legally taken against the user (or users) behind DonkCam, since taking photos or videos of people in public spaces is completely legal and banning the practice would be unconstitutional under the free speech clause of the First Amendment. Not only can DonkCam continue to take these photos without fearing charges, but it's also completely legal to upload these "creepshots" to the Internet, which includes porn sites like xHamster and Pornhub, some popular porn sites where users can upload their own videos.
So, yeah, I think I'll go ahead and avoid public spaces forever now. Bye world.
