Foundations that support cancer could use donated money for research and to help raise awareness about the disease. A cancer charity, however, rejected donations from a group of Reddit users and the reason has something to do with the nude photo leaks of celebrities dubbed as "Celebgate."
The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) has decided to return more than $6,000 in donated money as it was raised on the /r/thefappening subreddit, where naked photos of celebrities including award-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence, Kirsten Dunst, Victoria Justice and Ariana Grande were posted.
Redditor FappeningHero urged Redditors who have looked at and shared the nude celebrity photos to donate to PCF as Jennifer Lawrence, whose private photos were popularly posted and shared, is claimed to have donated to the charity herself albeit it is unclear whether or not the Hunger Games actress is indeed a donor of the charity.
"Let's make this a worthwhile endeavor," Reddit user FappeningHero's thread reads. "Jennifer Lawrence has donated to help cure prostate cancer, the least we can do is follow suit for helping us maintain our long-term health by donating. Be the hero TheFappening deserves! "
"Reddit the Fappening" eventually became the top fundraiser of PCF. In a statement released on Monday, however, the foundation said that it would return all the money that were raised through the /r/thefappening post saying that the donation was made without its knowledge and that it would not tolerate raising of funds in such manner. PCF also said that out of respect for those who are involved, it will not accept the money that was raised through the Reddit post.
"We would never condone raising funds for cancer research in this manner," PCF said in a statement. "Out of respect for everyone involved and in keeping with our own standards, we are returning all donations that resulted from this post."
The mass leak of the controversial photos is popularly attributed to Apple's iCloud but the company has denied that it was the result of vulnerabilities in its software but rather because the attack targeted usernames, passwords and security questions.
"We have discovered that certain celebrity accounts were compromised by a very targeted attack on user names, passwords and security questions, a practice that has become all too common on the Internet," Apple said in a statement. "None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple's systems including iCloud or Find my iPhone."
