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Tiziana Cantone Sex Tape: Police Investigate After Revenge Porn Video Leads To Italian Woman’s Suicide

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 13:46 PST, Sep 15, 2016

Tiziana Cantone gained internet infamy after a sex tape leaked showing the 31-year-old woman, and now the video has led the Italian woman to take her own life — and prompted police to investigate the leak.

The release of the sex tape actually dates back to spring, 2015, when someone close to Tiziana Cantone allegedly leaked it to the internet. Those close to the 31-year-old said she sent it to a small number of close friends, and from there it somehow made its way online, La Repubblica reported.

As the Mirror noted, Cantone was seen in the explicit video and acknowledged the camera.

In the tape, Tiziana could reportedly be heard saying: “Are you making a video? Bravo.”

This phrase was subsequently used by many YouTube users who made parodies of the footage and shared them online, according to local media.

But though she may have been a willing participant, Cantone had no part of the leak and took great measures to try to stop it from spreading.

The attention for the sex tape led to harassment for Tiziana Cantone, who reportedly received some nasty messages in response. Many people also recognized her in real life, leading Cantone to quit her job and even go through the process of legally changing her name.

Cantone’s lawyer took action against a number of sites hosting the video and sharing the tape, but it did little to reduce the Italian woman’s viral infamy.

Family members said Tiziana Cantone was deeply depressed and suicidal for months after the sex tape leaked.

“She had always been a healthy, normal girl,” her mother, Maria Teresa, told LaRepubblica.“Recently, she had been very unhappy. She suffered from everything she saw and heard, and in particular from the lawsuit, because she believed justice had not been done.”

Tiziana had attempted suicide two other times, the Independent noted, and followed through this week by taking her life at her mother’s home.

Friends of the 31-year-old said they couldn’t understand why people on the internet would be so cruel to someone they had never met and knew nothing about.

“I wonder how anyone can be so fierce, how to rage against a girl who has not done anything wrong,” friend Teresa Petrosino told the Corriere della Sera. “I think that they should be ashamed of all those who have filled the web of insults and meanwhile secretly watched the images.”

Tiziana Cantone is not the first person to commit suicide after being featured in a revenge porn video. Back in June, 15-year-old Florida student Tovonna Holton took her life after naked Snapchat photos and video began circulating around her school, leading to ridicule from her peers.

The two cases had strikingly similar circumstances. Both women had no control over the racy videos that leaked and both became the subject of bullying as a result of it. And when both women took their lives, it was their mothers who found them.

In Tovonna’s case, the teenager somehow got her hands on a gun and took it into a bathroom, locking herself in. By the time her mother figured out what had happened, it was too late.

“I go into the bathroom, I couldn’t get into bathroom,” Tovonna’s mother, Levon Holton-Teamer, told WFLA. “The bathroom light was off so I tried to get in and I looked down and I saw the puddle of blood. I tried to apply the pressure, the pressure to her head. I tried to save her. My baby… my baby.”

The Tiziana Cantone sex tape could now lead to criminal charges. Prosecutors in Naples have reportedly opened an investigation into who is responsible for releasing it to the internet.

[Featured Image by Tiziana Cantone/Instagram]

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