One of the tough parts of being a celebrity is dealing with obsessive fans, stalkers, and in Bella Thorne ’s case, hackers. In the summer of 2019, the singer dealt with a man hacking her Snapchat account and now the FBI has finally found him.
Two years ago, a 22-year-old British man named Joseph O‘Connor threatened to “release nude photos found on the singer’s Snapchat account unless Thorne tweeted thanking him for returning her account,” according to the New York Times. Instead of obeying the hacker’s threat, Thorne shared her own nude pictures to Twitter to “gain back her power.” O’Connor was eventually arrested this Wednesday in Spain.
In the midst of the news of the hacker’s arrest, Thorne took to her Instagram to thank the FBI for all of their efforts. Her lengthy caption began, “I want to thank the FBI for searching tirelessly for the person who made my life and others a living hell. I have felt violated many times in my life, but I thought I didn’t have a way out, so I made a choice.”
“So thank you, FBI, for a step in the right direction and just one less bad guy to worry about. Today I woke up with hope again, and a weight lifted off my shoulders. But with that said, I still need to get something across that I have wanted to say for a long time,” Thorne went on to say.
Fans of Thorne congratulated her on the good news in the post’s comment section. One comment read, “THAT’S RIGHT BABY 👏🏼 nobody deserves what you went through. So proud of you and your strength!!” Another commenter wrote, “Proud of u.”
O’Connor was not only responsible for hacking the 23-year-old’s social media, but he also was in connection with hacking more than 100 Twitter accounts last summer. He is the fourth person charged in the incident, according to the New York Times.
