Is The Harry Styles Hack Proof That Directioners Have Gone Too Far?
21 March 2016, 14:44 | Updated: 19 September 2017, 11:10
Anne isn't on tour. She's not in One Direction. She is Harry's mother.
Harry Styles is probably having a bad couple of days. Over the weekend, his mother's iCloud account was hacked, leading to vacation photos of him and model, Kendall Jenner being leaked on Twitter. #annesicloud trended over the weekend as two twitter accounts associated with the leak were suspended by the site.
@leoslut and @haarrystyles both got suspended: pic.twitter.com/MqSnkba2Bl
— sev (@Iustljp) March 19, 2016
The leak was extensive. It showed private photos of Harry and his family vacationing (you've probably seen the New Years pap shots) and gave a more detailed view of his purported relationship with Kendall Jenner. Thankfully, no photos of a more personal nature were leaked, as we've come to expect from high profile hacks.
Anne Cox, Harry's mother, has since deleted all her social media accounts--but, of course, fake ones have cropped up, further aggravating the family.
Please note: my mum is not back on Twitter, any new accounts are fake. To those making them - has her life not been violated enough for you?
— Gemma Styles (@GemmaAnneStyles) March 20, 2016
"True fans" have acted accordingly, condemning the actions of @haarrystyles (who took responsibility for the hack).
People are psychopaths. Don't call yourself a #Directioners if you're going to hurt the boys/their families. How do you hack an iCloud? Why?
— aristine (@aye_omega) March 19, 2016
I'm really disappointed in my fandom right now.... You just don't hack someones ICloud that's not human #directioners
— .dreamer. (@lovethewayoure) March 19, 2016
#annesicloud this is the most disgraceful thing to have ever happened to this fandom i am disgusted
— mollie (youtuber) (@idk_moll) March 20, 2016
#annesicloud H will abandon social media, not giving any insight of what he does then you'll ask 'what did we do?' Well this is the start.
— D A N I E L L E (@askdanielle_) March 20, 2016
It's clear that fans are pissed.
While @haarrystyles was surely attempting to feel closer to Harry, his or her efforts have, no doubt, driven Harry further from the fandom. Many Directioners have also noted that this action could likely force Harry away from social media altogether. Harry is pretty reserved on social media and is yet to comment on the controversy. None of his band mates have commented either, although I'm guessing they'd have a lot to say on the issue.
It's true, you can't accuse Directioners of this huge breech of privacy because it wasn't the entire fandom. It was one or two bad apples who seriously spoiled the bunch. The way the whole thing was executed was sloppy and unfair, especially since @haarrystyles is meant to be a Harry stan.
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But how did it get this bad?
Directioners have always been intense. They have the power to control a trending topic for hours on end, they know more about 1D than most Phd students know about their field of study, and they have seriously navigated social media to become the crème de la crème of fandoms.
And then something like this happens. A fan, drunk with entitlement, hacks into their favourite pop star's MOM's icloud account and leaks photos of their family vacation. Judging from their tweets, @haarrystyles doesn't even see how or why what they did was unfair and wrong.
This happened because fans feel so close to the boys. They've seen them in interviews, met and had conversations with them, and spent hours every day thinking about and discussing these people. It's no wonder that the boundaries simply don't exist anymore. If you can't separate your life from their own, you would certainly feel entitled to private photos of your favourite pop stars.
If I go to jail this is for all the Harry stans who don't get shit from Harry.
@haarrystyles
Harry Styles has been touring and making music with One Direction for over five years now. That's five years where Anne Cox has missed out on quality time with her son. That's five years where Harry was only able to make it back home when the band was on break. That's five years of Harry having to defend his right to a private life.
The amount of touring they do alone should indicate how much they've given up for their fans. Of course, giving up a certain degree of privacy is par for the course, but that shouldn't apply to people like Anne Cox.
Anne isn't on tour. She's not in One Direction. She is Harry's mother. She deserves privacy and respect and Harry is no doubt furious that her life has been violated in this way.
All the boys have private lives. They have girlfriends, parents and siblings, and even a child. The Directioners will always be a powerful fandom but there has to be a line. There has to be a point where fans refuse to participate in behavior that is damaging to the people they claim to love.
Anne should never be put in a situation where she has to defend her own right to privacy. Period.
Repeat after me, guys: Harry Styles owes you nothing. Anne Cox owes you less. We need to respect people's boundaries.
