Carrie Goldberg

Career Goldberg's work against revenge porn is best known but her career as an attorney is broader, including cases of "sextortion" (sexual extortion), cyberstalking, intimate partner violence, and rape. Her clients include minors. Goldberg told Psychology Today that the one commonality in her clients is that "someone took away their control", whether it was their control over their body, privacy or reputation. She told The Cut in 2019 that she does not maintain a "traditional attorney-client relationship", as the sensitive nature of cases requires mutual trust. Her law firm has staff members who were formerly her clients;

Goldberg focuses on civil law, but her law firm also works on some criminal cases, restraining orders and removing abuse content from the internet. Goldberg advises people who have experienced revenge porn and online abuse to keep evidence of the crimes rather than deleting it. She says that they should first report the abuse to the websites hosting the content, then contact police or Title IX co-ordinators (in educational settings), and find legal assistance if this fails. An attorney may assist in sending cease and desist letters, Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notices, and search engine de-indexing requests.

Early career After moving to New York in 1999, Goldberg was a case manager for Holocaust survivors; she began law school at night school in 2003. In 2007, she graduated from her night school, Brooklyn Law School, with a J.D. degree. Weinstein would eventually be accused of sexual violence in over 100 instances, and be sentenced in 2020 to 23 years in prison. The public stories of abuse committed by Weinstein led to the "Weinstein effect", wherein people revealed stories of sexual violence by famous figures, and the wider #MeToo movement. Goldberg worked as a lawyer for the Weinstein accuser Asia Argento when she was herself accused of sexual violence against an underage boy; Argento settled for $380,000.

Politician Katie Hill unsuccessfully sued the Daily Mail and RedState for publishing naked photos of her, with Goldberg as her lawyer. After the Democratic Member of Congress Katie Hill's naked photos were published by the Daily Mail—a British tabloid—and RedState—a conservative blog—Goldberg represented her. Hill filed a lawsuit against the publications, the journalist who sourced the images, and her ex-husband—who she accused of leaking them. The images related to an inappropriate relationship with a campaign staffer, drug usage, and a tattoo resembling a white supremacist symbol. Goldberg argued that they were gratuitous and unnecessary, because the information content could have been conveyed through text and other images. The judge dismissed the case early in the process under anti-SLAPP legislation, and Hill was ordered to pay her defendant's fees.

Goldberg worked for the author Emma Cline, who was sued by her ex-boyfriend Chaz Reetz-Laiolo for plagiarism. Cline counter-sued for physical and emotional abuse by Reetz-Laiolo during their relationship, and Reetz-Laiolo's lawyers responded with a letter including detailed claims about Cline's alleged sexual history, including naked images of Cline. Goldberg saw this action as "inappropriate and ludicrous" as it gave her client a choice between settling the lawsuit or allowing the claims and sexual images to be publicly released. The plagiarism case was later dismissed.

Goldberg represented Matthew Herrick in an unsuccessful lawsuit against Grindr, a dating app for men who have sex with men. Herrick's ex, Oscar Juan Carlos Gutierrez, impersonated Herrick on Grindr, giving his location and saying he wanted violent rape fantasy sex, sometimes claiming to be HIV-positive and addicted to crystal meth. Though other dating apps banned Gutierrez from their platforms, Grindr did not. Over 1,000 men were lured to Herrick's home in the year before Gutierrez was arrested. Goldberg and Herrick sued Grindr for negligence, but a judge found that they were not liable due to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). A Second Circuit appeal was also declined. In 2021, the woman received a settlement from the city of Anaheim, California, and the marshal was arrested.

Nobody's Victim

Goldberg's book "Nobody's Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers, Pervs, and Trolls" was published by Plume in August 2019. It describes a number of her cases, including that of Herrick vs. Grindr and the Weinstein accusers, as well as a man who impersonated his girlfriend's ex-partners to harass her, women coerced into pornography under false pretenses, and children who were raped or sexually extorted by adults over the internet. Goldberg also describes her personal experiences with sexual violence, including the motivation for her to start a law firm, and other famous cases. A federal law that Goldberg supported called the Ending Nonconsensual Online User Graphic Harassment (ENOUGH) Act failed to pass.

Goldberg is affiliated with a number of non-profits and working groups related to domestic violence and sexual violence. She is a board member of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative. In 2016, she was invited to a White House meeting about sexual assault in schools.

Television Goldberg was a series consultant on the American drama series 13 Reasons Why (2017–2020), set in a high school where a student dies by suicide. In 2017, Variety reported that CBS Studios and Sony Pictures Television had put work into a planned television series based on Goldberg's life and career.

Views In 2019, Goldberg told Ms. that technology is not "inherently harmful" but its anonymity "amplifies and perpetuates the harm instigated by abusers". She criticized law enforcement for failures to investigate or appreciate the seriousness of crimes with online elements. Goldberg's firm campaigns for reform to Section 230; Goldberg told MIT Technology Review that she would like to see it "eradicated".

Goldberg has accused the Electronic Frontier Foundation of being lobbyists for Big Tech and of protecting the online activities of harassers, stalkers and abusers. The EFF in turn have called her description of Section 230 an "oversimplification" and described one of Goldberg's lawsuits as "dangerous" to free speech. She is married to First Amendment lawyer, Marc Randazza.