14 DAY TRIAL // The Nickelodeon actress Victoria Justice was among the first to respond to the massive celebrity photo leak that took place over the weekend. She promptly told her fans and followers on social media that the leaked material was fake and that it wasn't her in the photos.
The pictures showed Victoria in private instances and poses, in various states of undress in her home and in her bedroom. She addressed the issue by claiming that “These so called [photos] of me are FAKE people. Let me nip this in the bud right now. *pun intended.*”
Now, Gossipcop is saying that Victoria is singing to another tune, “Shortly after I tweeted about certain pics of me being fake, I was faced with a serious violation of privacy. There have always been fake photos of me on the internet, but I will not be put in the position to defend myself as to what is real or what is fake,” the actress says.
“I am angry at this massive invasion of privacy, and like the other women who are in this situation alongside of me, I am taking legal action to protect my rights,” Justice continues, hinting that she's going to follow the other celebrities involved in the leak, all of whom have lawyered up and are complaining to the FBI about the invasion of their privacy.
Basically, what Victoria is now saying is that the photos are real but that she jumped to the conclusion that they were fake simply as a defensive reaction. After fans pointed out that the photos were in fact real and that Victoria was fooling no one, she decided to play the victim card and “kinda, sorta” admit she did take those compromising photos.
The scandal has reached epic proportions and is now involving the FBI and Apple, which has already conducted an investigation and concluded that its iCloud feature had not been hacked and that this attack was directed specifically at some of the celebrities involved.
In the official statement, Apple said that “certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions.” This has led to speculations that the attack was carried out by a crime ring that specializes in such celebrity hacks and then sells the resulting compromising material online to the highest bidder.
That only leaves singer Ariana Grande in the “the photos of me are fake” camp, as the rest of the female celebrities involved have all confessed, in one way or another, that they were indeed hacked and their intimate photos were stolen.