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Democrat state senator Lauren Book of Florida says a hacker stole nude photos from her and attempted to extort her by threatening to reveal them.
Following an investigation, she learned that these images have been bought and traded online since 2000.
Now she is taking action by proposing a new bill to strengthen Florida’s revenge porn law.
The new legislation would make it a felony to steal sexually explicit images from someone’s phone or other digital devices. It would also make disseminating altered or created sexually explicit images, known as deepfakes, a felony.
“I hate that this happened to me,” Book said during in an interview. “I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. But I’ll take it, because I know that I can do something about it.”
This isn’t the first time that Book says that she’s been victimized. Book says she was also sexually abused by her nanny for six years when she was a child.
She has channeled the pain into a lifetime of helping other abuse survivors.
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Now after years of working hard to heal herself and restore her life — running a nonprofit to help victims, getting married, having children and winning her Senate seat — Book has been victimized again, this time by someone trying to extort her by threatening to reveal nude photos that were stolen from her.
Book is taking action as only a legislator can. While the pain came rushing back, so did her spirit to fight, and she’s seeking a new law to try to prevent others from being victimized.
The bill sponsored by Book, a Democrat, gets its first committee hearing Tuesday. It would strengthen Florida’s revenge porn law by making it a felony to steal sexually explicit images from someone’s phone or other digital devices. It would also make disseminating altered or created sexually explicit images, known as deepfakes, a felony.
Book vented her anger in the phone interview with the AP Monday night as she described the international trade and sale of images stolen from people without their knowledge. She cursed loudly at times, and sometimes choked back tears. She called it a sick, perverted subculture that pays more for images of celebrities and elected officials, but which also victimizes women who aren’t well known.
“Truth be told, if it weren’t for my children, I would have ended my life,” she said. “It brought up all of the stuff. All of it that you think that you’ve gotten under your belt, that you’ve fixed it and you’ve changed it and then all of a sudden here it is in front of your face.”
“They were reading about who I was and talking about how I’m a survivor of rape, so let’s try to get some rape videos. Can we get some of her getting raped, killed, tortured? Can we make some of that? Can we find it? How can we get it?” Book said.
