Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Netflix, Documentaries, TV And Film
Kya Buller
A new Netflix documentary about a controversial dating site for cheaters has left people all saying the same thing.
The three part series - which explores organised infidelity and a hacking scandal that shocked the world - landed on the streaming platform on 15 May.
Titled Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal, the doc follows the 2015 hacking case that saw the sensitive data of 32 million users who had signed up to Ashley Madison to embark on extra-marital affairs leaked onto the dark web.
The cyber attack led to the breakdown of marriages and destroyed families.
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It's believed that well-known faces including reality TV stars and US government officials were implicated by the data breach.
The hackers, who remain anonymous and are known only as 'The Impact Team', attacked Ashley Madison and threatened bosses that they would leak the findings unless the website shut down.
When the website refused to cooperate and stayed up and running, the data was leaked - including names, email addresses and credit card information.
Despite backlash being directed towards the subjects involved for their extra-marital activity, the director Toby Paton has expressed empathy towards them.
He told Variety: "The thing I think she wanted to more talk about was the importance of forgiveness and how we should try and understand the struggles and difficulties that people are going through."
He added: "Rather than berating people who joined Ashley Madison, we were much more interested in exploring why they were drawn to the site. What were they looking for? What was going on in their relationships? And, crucially: What was their partner’s side of the story?"
A patricularly interesting element of these remarks is that it makes it seem as though Ashley Madison and organised cheating is a thing of the past.
Rather, it's still up and running despite the 2015 scandal.
The website bears the tagline: "Life's short. Have an affair."
It also states that it is 'the leading discreet, like-minded dating community in the world'.
This detail is something that has absolutely boggled the minds of viewers.
One person wrote: "The ashley madison doc on netflix was so unserious lmfao. and the fact that it’s still running and people still actually put they info in it is hilarious."
Another said: "The fact that this Ashley Madison site is still running is crazy."
A third chimed: "On another note, apparently Ashley Madison is still up and running. Oh god you can’t make this crazy world up."
Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal is streaming on Netflix now.