By https://www.abc.net.au/news/brad-ryan/6017770
Publication Date: 2026-01-23 01:40:00
It was one of the most infamous sex tape leaks of the early internet age.
19-year-old Paris Hilton was cheated on by a much older boyfriend who posted her intimate video online without consent.
“People called it a scandal,” Hilton, now 44, told reporters and a bipartisan group of politicians outside the US Capitol in Washington DC
“It wasn’t that. It was abuse.”
“There were no laws protecting me back then. There weren’t even words for what was done to me.”
“The internet was still new and so was the cruelty that came with it.
“They insulted me, they laughed and made me the punch line.
“They sold my pain for clicks and then told me to be calm, move on, and even be grateful for the attention.“
Paris Hilton (left) supports the push by politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (right) to push a bill through Congress. (ABC News: Brad Ryan)
Half a century after the birth of the Internet, online cruelty and the technology that powers it have evolved…