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Anthony Weiner: The Twitter Scandal

Christian Cosgrove

Stockton University

GEN 2243 F2020: 091

Professor Calderwood

October 26, 2020

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Abstract

The rise in social media usage has been detrimental to many individuals in a variety of ways. The

more social media is being engraved into our society as a social norm has revealed its

consequences, more specifically, with many celebrities and politicians such as Anthony Weiner.

The most infamous consequence has been its role in many users' privacy and data. This paper

explores social media's disadvantages regarding privacy, specifically in politician Anthony

Weiner and his political downfall. Anthony Weiner is a former politician that resigned from

congress in 2011 due to multiple sexting scandals that began on Twitter. Social media was the

commencement of his career-ending scandal. Research on the topic is derived from multiple

sources from scholarly databases and non scholarly databases which include online articles, peer

reviewed journals, and newsletters.

Keywords:​ Social media, sexting, scandal, privacy issues, Anthony Weiner, privacy

laws, social media controversy, hacks

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The year 2020 has been quite a year in acknowledging the many issues in our current

society. Issues such as covid-19, the presidential elections, and privacy issues involving social

media have been the topic of discussion amongst many individuals today. In the current state of

the world, it is evident that the increase of social media usage has brought along more negatives

than positives. The most infamous consequence of social media is its lack of privacy protection.

That issue alone has the ability for anyone to ruin their lives from an error involving social media

usage. The increase in technology is uncovering many flaws in social media regarding

protections of users' privacy. Over the past decade, many celebrities and politicians have been

the center of controversy due to an error stemmed from social media. It is clear that social media

was the driving force behind the political downfall of Anthony Weiner, a former New York

congressman.

Anthony Weiner was born in the Borough of Brooklyn, New York, on September 4,

1964. Weiner graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1981, which led to him

attending The State University of New York, also known as SUNY. During his time at school, he

became involved with the Student Government. It was there that he was named the most

effective student senator. After a few years at SUNY, Weiner would become an exchange

student at the College of William and Mary, where he would receive his Bachelor of Arts degree

for Political Science in 1985. After wrapping up his education, he secured a job in politics

working for former United States Representative and now Senator Chuck Schumer (Saintano,

2017). He recommended Weiner to get involved in local politics after three years of working for

him. He listened and after many years of working in politics he moved up the ladder and
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eventually became a New York congressman before a scandal would arise that would end his

political career.

Today's use of social media should cause the common phrase of "think before you speak"

to change to "think before you tweet," at least in the eyes of Anthony Weiner. Weiner had been

successful in politics since he graduated from SUNY and began working for Chuck Schumer

until eventually becoming a congressman. That all changed in 2011 when he had become the

center of controversy due to a sexting scandal he was involved in. According to siliconebeat,

"Weiner tweeted out a photo of his crotch — he was wearing only boxers. He had meant to use

Twitter's direct-messaging feature to send the photo to a Seattle woman, but instead, he posted

the photo to the Twittersphere", thus causing a scandal to surface around him (Sumagaysay,

2017). Weiner had claimed to have been hacked before a week later, confessing that he had done

it while being in contact with other women as well. The leaked photo on Twitter resulted in his

resignation from congress (Sumagaysay, 2017).

In 2013 Anthony Weiner decided to attempt a comeback in politics by trying to win New

York City's mayoral bid. That did not last long due to another scandal that had been exposed.

Anthony Weiner was caught sending explicit photos to a 22-year-old under the alias Carlos

Danger. The photos ended up getting leaked to a gossip website for all to see. A few years later,

in 2016, news broke that he had been sexting a 15-year-old girl. An FBI investigation had

started, and Weiner's laptop would be confiscated for evidence. This would also cause the leaked

Hillary Clinton email investigation to open back up, which social media played a big role in, too

(Saintano, 2017). Many found out about Hillary Clinton's scandal on the leaked emails during

the 2016 presidential election through social media. Anthony Weiner pleaded guilty to sexting a
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minor on May 19th and would become permanently registered as a sex offender (Saintano,

2017). He would be sentenced to 21 months in prison.

Most of Anthony's Weiner's mistakes could have been avoided if he used his public

social media accounts more wisely. It is no secret today that privacy invasion is a significant risk

when it comes to the usage of social media. What makes it more difficult is that social media is

only getting more and more popular as time goes on. Christopher Loeffler (2012) states:

There has been an explosion in the use of social media in the last half decade. Two-thirds

(66 percent) of online adults use social media, and hundreds of millions of people

regularly use social media and social networking tools. People are visiting social media

sites every day to connect with friends and family, or otherwise interact with businesses,

brands, and Web sites (p. 12).

Many should be well aware of the risks associated with social media. We are in a digital age

where the internet is all around us. To be successful with our technology, it is in the people's best

interest to seek a solution to many of the issues it brings today.

Social media does indeed have its positives, such as connecting with friends, staying up

to date on trends, and a place to interact with one's interests. On the other hand, there appears to

be more negatives than positives regarding social media. Some of those negatives include

addiction, cyberbullying, fear of missing out, sleep deprivation, privacy issues, and sexting

("Concerns," n.d.). Sexting and privacy issues have been the most problematic out of all of them,

especially in the downfall of Anthony Weiner.

Sexting is a sexual type of communication via text or direct messaging on social media

apps. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist (ACOG), "A 2008

survey showed that 19% of females (aged 13–19 years) and 32% of women (aged 20–26 years)
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had sent nude or seminude pictures, and 31% of the former group and 46% of the latter group

had received such pictures" ("Concerns," n.d.). Sexting is a trending issue that needs addressing

to avoid any future drawbacks in users. The study shows that it is becoming a trend among users

and that many of them are minors. It is easy to fake an age online and send explicit photos to

people all over the internet. This causes various people to get in trouble with the law even if the

minor had lied about their real age. It would be no surprise if this happened to Anthony Weiner

on multiple occasions. ACOG's research of the law proclaims:

Sexting images of minors can have significant legal consequences. The Protection of

Children Against Sexual Exploitation Act prohibits visual depiction of minors engaged in

sexually explicit conduct. Under current child pornography laws, the dissemination of

images of a juvenile to another person is prohibited and can result in prosecution.

Although several states have laws specific to sexting, some states consider sexting among

minors a felony ​(“Concerns”, n.d.)

It is for that reason that one should avoid any sexual communication on the internet. If Anthony

Weiner had known about the legal consequences, he might not have sexted and could have

avoided his 21-month prison sentence.

The other big issue with social media is its issues in protecting users' privacy—almost

every social media application is a topic of controversy about keeping user's information

secured. A great example is Twitter; the app Anthony Weiner used to send explicit photos to

women. In 2010 Twitter failed to protect users' personal information due to hackers being able to

fully gain access to random users accounts. This issue allowed the hackers to access all

information, send tweets, and direct message anyone. As a result, Twitter would agree to settle

on a deal where it would be audited every other year for the next ten years by a third party
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forensic auditor (Loeffler, 2012). This would be its first attempt to keep users' information more

secured and away from hackers.

It is still a mystery why Anthony Weiner would allow himself to be involved in such

predatory actions and send explicit photos to a minor. Upon researching psychological articles, it

is speculated that Anthony Weiner could have had a mental illness derived from his usage of

social media. Social media gives off a sense of privateness within one's fantasies. It is easy to get

engulfed in a virtual world filled with one's fantasies and desires. The issue with this virtual

world is that everything is real, public, and set to stay forever (Javors, 2011). Deluded users get

lost in this virtual world and could be why individuals like Anthony Weiner think that all his

sexual desires were private. Unfortunately, they are not, and the simple mistake of sending out a

public tweet of his crotch marked the beginning to his end.

Objectively social media could be a good thing when using proper social media etiquette.

That includes keeping one's information private with multiple passwords, thinking before

posting, limiting the amount of usage, and the content. Do not overshare, especially while under

the influence, and keep private life separated from business or academics. It can be easy to get

carried away with social media, therefore it is advised to think about one's future before making

a controversial post. Careers could be lost like Anthony Weiners and over something that had

happened on social media. Times are changing, and it would be beneficial to implement social

media etiquette's teachings to protect future generations of all negative consequences that

coincide with it. Today Anthony Weiner is free from prison and working as a CEO of a large

company. He is no longer involved in politics due to his social media sexting scandals and does

not see himself being allowed back into politics anytime soon. Although he faced significant

backlash and lost his political career, he learned a valuable lesson on social media etiquette.
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Social media can be useful, and it can be harmful, but at the end of the day, it all falls on the

users; use it wisely.

References

Concerns Regarding Social Media and Health Issues in Adolescents and Young Adults. (n.d.).

Retrieved from

https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2016/02/concerns-re

garding-social-media-and-health-issues-in-adolescents-and-young-adults

Javors, I. R. (2011). Culture Notes: Sexting, Lies, and Twitterland. ​Annals of Psychotherapy &

Integrative Health,​ ​14(​ 2), 16–17

Loeffler, C. (2012). Privacy Issues in Social Media. ​IP Litigator,​ ​18(​ 5), 12–18.

Sainato, M. (2017, May 19). The Humiliating Downfall of Anthony Weiner. Retrieved from

https://observer.com/2017/05/anthony-weiner-sexual-misconduct-guilty-downfall-chuck-s

chumer/

Sumagaysay, L. (2017, September 25). Anthony Weiner, whose downfall began on Twitter,

sentenced to prison. Retrieved from

http://www.siliconbeat.com/2017/09/25/anthony-weiner-whose-downfall-began-twitter-se

ntenced-prison/