Actress and singer Bella Thorne revealed on Twitter over the weekend that someone was attempting to blackmail her over hacked nude photos. Rather than indulge the hacker, Thorne instead tweeted out the iPhone screenshots of the text messages she received, which included the offending photos. “Fuck u and the power u think you have over me,” she wrote. “I’m gonna write about this in my next book.”
It was a pretty bold move, and as such it became a topic of conversation on The View Monday morning. “I saw the picture of her nude, or almost nude, or whatever,” quipped Joy Behar. “If I had that body, I’d post them at the food emporium.”
“It just saddens me that these kids have to go through this,” countered Sunny Hostin. “I guess it’s the age of social media, but for someone to sort of extort her and threaten her with posting these pictures, it’s terrible.”
Whoopi Goldberg, on the other hand, was less sympathetic.
“If you’re famous, I don’t care how old you are, you don’t take nude pictures of yourself,” she said. “Listen, when they’re hacking you, they’re hacking all of your stuff whether it’s one picture or a million pictures. Once you take that picture it goes into the cloud and it’s available to any hacker who wants them. And if you don’t know that in 2019 that this is an issue, I’m sorry, your age does not … you don’t get to do that.”
She makes a fair point, since we’ve seen enough hacked nude photo scandals (re: “The Fappening“) to know that any high profile celebrity is vulnerable to having sensitive photos exposed — however for her part, Thorne did not see it that way. On Tuesday night, the 21-year-old actress posted an Instagram story calling out Goldberg for her perceived slut shaming.
“I just wanna say that me watching this interview made me feel really bad about myself and I hope you’re happy, I really do, I hope you’re so fucking happy,” she said tearfully. “You know, you’re so crazy for thinking such terrible things on such an awful situation.”
https://twitter.com/7x77am/status/1141095464315629568
She went on, claiming that she planned to cancel an upcoming appearance on The View over Goldberg’s remarks:
“Like, I don’t really wanna go on The View anymore because I don’t really want to be beaten down by a bunch of older women for my body and my sexuality. I don’t really feel like that. And so I’m going to cancel my interview because I don’t really want you guys talking about your views to young girls because I would not want my daughter to learn that and I would never say that to her.
“Shame on you. Shame on you, Whoopi, and shame on you for putting that public opinion just, out there like that for every young girl to think that they’re disgusting for even taking a photo like that.”
To be fair to Whoopi, talking about “[her] views and public opinions” is literally the entire point of The View. It’s literally right there in the name of the show! But not everyone saw it that way, and a few people took to Twitter to call out the longtime host.
Saying "well if u didn't take the picture" is no different than saying if u didn't wear short skirts or if u weren't drinking…stop blaming victims for the actions of predators…whoopi
— Trisha (@bkchick13) June 19, 2019
Listen. I know how the internet works in 2019 and I know the people are entitled, cruel shits who get off on violating other people's privacy.
But unlike Whoopi I also understand consent & autonomy & fuck saying that isn't more important.
Demand THEY so better. Not the victim. pic.twitter.com/R7RdhFs95F
— The Unmissable CJ ✨ (@CJPendragon) June 19, 2019
https://twitter.com/ayeee_its_brick/status/1141060268170063873
On other other side of the coin, it would appear that most people fell squarely on #TeamWhoopi. Because how dare homegirl make a case for common sense and accountability?
Bella Thorne needs to put her big girl panties back on and realize just like her nudes didn't break the internet, her tears because Whoopi told the truth wouldn't either. They may trend more than those pictures though.. Hell, she's still not trending. Whoopi is. pic.twitter.com/2bUlcNQkN4
— Attiyya K (@AttiyyaK) June 19, 2019
https://twitter.com/theeventstaff/status/1141312570802016256
Bella Thorne is no better than that kid that got his admission revoked from Harvard. These generation z kids live in a world of entitlement and failure to understand consequences. Whoopi said NOTHING wrong. In 2019 people get hacked. Dont want anyone else to see it dont take it
— Because I Said So (@MsAsh_Renee) June 19, 2019
https://twitter.com/awalker129/status/1141314591294656512
https://twitter.com/itshellacious/status/1141272259740479488
https://twitter.com/Charizard864/status/1141334782208438272
https://twitter.com/BreezyVsBrian/status/1141311131358773248
Team Whoopi. I can't believe, after all we've seen, celebs are still taking nudes and then being shocked that they're leaked. Bella… pic.twitter.com/hIg0jHdE9z
— ItsMe ♊️ (@TheKagneiKing) June 19, 2019
https://twitter.com/joonyaboonya/status/1141285663263907840
And then there were the jokes and memes at Thorne’s expense:
https://twitter.com/thatwithergal/status/1141338963308883970
Whoopi Goldberg after Belle Thorne cried on Instagram when Whoopi told her the common sense truth pic.twitter.com/mphlBntGri
— 🌊 Beach Bum 🌊 (@BeachBumMB69) June 19, 2019
https://twitter.com/kagomebae/status/1141331860712116224
It seems safe to say that this topic will likely be revisited on an upcoming segment on The View, and that we probably haven’t heard the last of it.