SACRAMENTO — An individual claiming to be affiliated with Texxxan.com, the revenge porn site spearheaded by notorious webmaster Hunter Thomas Taylor, says that the banned content from the site now has a new online home.
Known as "John Smith," the individual alleges that he reposted Texxxan's content to a document-storing website that can only be accessed using online anonymity software.
Despite an injunction issued by the 260th District Court of Orange on April 16 barring the relaunch of Texxxan or file sharing of its content, Smith continues to defend the site and helms an ongoing Twitter war against the woman who initially sued Taylor.
As of post time, Texxxan.com remains defunct.
Although the veiled Smith has spoken as a Texxan authority via telephone on Anderson Cooper’s talk show, attorney John S. Morgan, who represented scores of women claiming defamation against the site, isn’t sure if he’s connected to Taylor or any of the other defendants named in the case, although he believes he may be a friend of theirs.
Taylor has publicly denied calling Cooper’s talk show.
While Smith may simply be an impostor, public persons have come out against criminalizing revenge porn, including former judge and Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano.
“Criminalizing the distribution of that which was freely given and freely received would be invalidated under the First Amendment," Napolitano told Fox. "The First Amendment is not the guardian of taste."
The ACLU initially opposed California’s revenge porn bill, SB 255, on the grounds that it violated the First Amendment, but accepted the revised version which mandated that the images were posted with the intent of causing emotional harm and that the defendant suffered such harm.
SB 255, recently passed by the state’s legislature, now sits on Gov’ Jerry Brown’s desk, awaiting action. He has until Oct. 13 to sign the bill.
A representative from Brown’s office told XBIZ that the governor has not issued a statement regarding the bill, and that he rarely comments publicly on pending legislation.