The Daily News has a statement from Gennette Nicole regarding the controversy swirling around an explicit image Tweeted via Rep. Anthony Weiner’s Twitter account. Mediaite has a fair assessment of where the story stands for now:
It may be too soon to say for sure, but this Memorial Day weekend may go down in the annals of Twitter history as one of the strangest ones imaginable. Rep. Anthony Weiner claimed that his Twitter account had been hacked after an inappropriate photo surfaced that was alleged to have been sent to a college student via the social media platform. There are a slew of legitimate questions, however, that remain. Once answered, they could do irreparable damage to some high profile personalities, particularly if there is more to the story, as there most certainly is.
As for Gennette Nicole’s statement, Big Government and associated Breitbart sites made the decision to redact or withhold Gennette’s name and personal information as it was determined unnecessary for an accurate reporting of the still developing story.
The notion that a verified Twitter account, in this instance, belonging to a member of Congress, can allegedly be hacked and continue to remain verified raises serious questions for Twitter. That an official account of a member of Congress can be hacked has even broader ramifications. Many taxpayers may not think it the laughing matter Rep. Anthony Weiner appeared to think it was, given his own reaction.
Also from Gennette’s statement:
The last 36 hours have been the most confusing, anxiety-ridden hours of my life. I’ve watched in sheer disbelief as my name, age, location, links to any social networking site I’ve ever used, my old phone numbers and pictures have been passed along from stranger to stranger.
When contacted, sources on Capitol Hill raised serious concerns given that such a hacked account could potentially provide access to confidential, if not classified, information, by facilitating access to government servers via an existing Virtual Private Network. The extent of any hack would have to be investigated before any determination in that regard could be made.
If someone was easily able to access Weiner’s password for Twitter or Facebook, it’s unknown what other passwords they may have captured. It was also explained that a Representative should feel compelled to immediately report the incident to the House Sargeant at Arms, enabling Capitoll Hill Police to conduct an investigation.
One would presume Weiner appreciates all that and has taken appropriate action, as he did recently support the Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act of 2011. Unfortunately, given his office’s reluctance to speak to that issue, that remains unknown.
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Full statement from Gennette Nicole to the New York Daily News:
Friday evening I logged onto Twitter to find that I had about a dozen new mentions in less than an hour, which is a rare occurrence. When I checked one of the posts that I had been tagged in I saw that it was a picture that had supposedly been tweeted to me by Congressman Anthony Weiner.
The account that these tweets were sent from was familiar to me; this person had harassed me many times after the Congressman followed me on Twitter a month or so ago. Since I had dealt with this person and his cohorts before I assumed that the tweet and the picture were their latest attempts at defaming the Congressman and harassing his supporters.
Annoyed, I responded with something along the lines of “are you f***ing kidding me?” and “I’ve never seen this. You people are sick.” I blocked their accounts, made my page private, and let the matter drop, expecting them to eventually do the same.
Within about an hour, however, I realized that I had grossly underestimated the severity of the situation that I had somehow become a part of.
The last 36 hours have been the most confusing, anxiety-ridden hours of my life. I’ve watched in sheer disbelief as my name, age, location, links to any social networking site I’ve ever used, my old phone numbers and pictures have been passed along from stranger to stranger.
My friends have received phone calls from people claiming to be old friends of mine, attempting to obtain my contact information. My siblings have received tweets that are similar in nature. I began taking steps, though not quickly enough, to remove as much personal information from the Internet as possible.
Not because I “was exposed as Weiner’s mistress” or because I “was responsible for the hack,” as Gawker has suggested. I removed my information because I, believe it or not, do not enjoy being harassed or being the reason that my loved ones are targets of harassment.
I have seen myself labeled as the “Femme Fatale of Weinergate,” “Anthony Weiner’s 21-year-old coed mistress” and “the self-proclaimed girlfriend of Anthony Weiner.”
All of this is so outlandish that I don’t know whether to be pissed off or amused, quite frankly. This is the reality of sharing information online in the 21st century. Things that I never imagined people would care about are now being plastered all over blog sites, including pictures of me from when I was 17 and tweets that have been taken completely out of context. I tweeted once (it was reported that I said it twice) that “I wonder what my boyfriend @RepWeiner is up to.”
I am a 21-year-old college student from Seattle. I have never met Congressman Weiner, though I am a fan. I go to school in Bellingham where I spend all of my time; I’ve never been to New York or to DC. The point I am trying to make is that, contrary to the impression that I apparently gave from my tweet, I am not his girlfriend. Nor am I the wife, girlfriend or mistress of Barack Obama, Ray Allen or Cristiano Ronaldo, despite the fact that I have made similar assertions about them via Twitter.
There have never been any inappropriate exchanges between Anthony Weiner and myself, including the tweet/picture in question, which had apparently been deleted before it reached me. I cannot answer the questions that I do not have the answers to. I am not sure whether or not this letter will alleviate any future harassment. I also do not have a clear understanding as to how or why exactly I am involved in this fiasco. I do know that my life has been seriously impacted by speculation and faulty allegations. My reputation has been called into question by those who lack the character to report the facts.
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