Archive

Lewinsky: I Was 1st Cyberbullying Victim

SPEAKING OUT

“Patient zero” of online harassment.

cheats/2014/10/20/lewinsky-i-was-1st-cyberbullying-victim/142010-lewinsky-cheat_ussnlh
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Monica Lewinsky opened up about the online harassment she experienced in 1998 when her affair with Bill Clinton was exposed on the Drudge Report. “I was patient zero,” Lewinsky said Monday at the Forbes “30 Under 30” event in Philadelphia. “The first person to have their reputation completely destroyed worldwide via the Internet.” Lewinsky says she wants to launch a “cultural revolution” to end cyberbullying, citing victims such as Rutgers student Tyler Clementi and Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence. “What does it really feel like to see yourself, your name and your likeness, ripped apart on the Internet?” she said. “It feels like a punch in the gut. That was every day in 1998.”

Read it at Forbes