Web entrepreneur and political activist Aaron Swartz, who made headlines in 2011 when he was charged with hacking into MIT’s network and stealing millions of documents, took his life in New York City Friday, his uncle and lawyer told MIT’s The Tech.
“MIT is saddened to learn of the death of Aaron Swartz. This loss of a gifted young person, 26 years old, is a tragedy,” said the college in a statement, which encouraged anyone affected by Swartz’s death to reach out to the campus mental health services.
Swartz was a giant in the hacking community and today eulogies for the young man flooded social media.
“Aaron dead. World wanderers, we have lost a wise elder. Hackers for right, we are one down. Parents all, we have lost a child. Let us weep,” read a tweet from the account of Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web.
Swartz was an activist for free and open information on the Internet.
At age 14, he helped develop RSS, a system that quickly distributes updated Web pages to other websites or people. According to his online biography, he was the cofounder of online news site Reddit and the founder of nonprofit political action group Demand Progress.
In July 2011, Swartz was charged in US District Court in Boston with hacking into the archive system JSTOR on MIT’s network in 2010 and stealing more than 4 million articles, some of which were only available for purchase. At the time, he was a fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics.
Swartz was facing up to 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine. According to The Tech, Swartz pleaded not guilty to the charges on Sept. 24, 2012.
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