Bella Thorne has leaked nude photos of herself in order to take back power from a hacker who threatened to release them.
The actress - best known for her role on the Disney Channel's Shake It Up - had her Twitter account hacked last week, and posted screenshots of a series of messages from an anonymous person threatening to leak her personal videos and selfies, saying: "YO BELLA! Got all the videos."
Addressing her fans, the 21-year-old explained why she was leaking them first.
"Yesterday as u all know all my s*** was hacked," she began in a statement on Twitter. "For the last 24 hours I have been threatened with my own nudes I feel gross, I feel watched, I feel someone has taken something from me that I only wanted one special person to see. He has sent me multiple nude photos of other celebs, he won’t stop with me or them he will just keep going."
Thorne then explained that she was sick of a man having control, and was taking the power back by releasing the photos, captioning her tweet with "f**k u and the power u think you have over me".
"Here’s the photos he’s been threatening me with, in other words here’s my boobies, [sic]" she wrote. "So here f*** u, and the last 24 hours I have been crying instead of celebrating my book while doing my book press. Oh yea, the FBI will be at your house shortly, so watch. Your. Mother. F***in. Back. [sic]."
While there have been some less than respectful comments about the images, the general consensus is overwhelmingly positive, with @huntermoreonoo writing: "You took the power back from this piece of s**t. That’s real strength. I love you."
Twitter user @LegendDVash also showered Thorne with praise for her decision, stating: "Wow. I am speechless. Be strong Bella. I have follow you since Disney Channel Days. And glad to know you have grown to be as strong as you are. S**t that’s some mess up s**t [sic] that person did. Be strong, nobody deserves that."
Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, the model said that while she is extremely upset at the hack, she believes her hacker is a teenager, and explained that she doesn't want to "ruin" him.
"This kid sounds like he’s 17, as much as I’m so angry and wanted to f**k him up over doing this to people I just wanted to teach him a lesson," she said. "He’s still a kid and we make mistakes, this mistake is a bad one. But I don’t want some 17-year-old's whole life ruined because he wasn’t thinking straight and [was] being a dumbass."
She continued: "He’s obviously smart so if he got on the right side of the tracks he could actually possibly help our community and be an alliance. You can’t always tear someone down for their bad sides but more so build up their good sides."