Online activist and Reddit co-founder, Aaron Swartz, was found dead at the age of 26 in his Brooklyn apartment Friday, ABC News reports Jan. 12.
A spokeswoman for New York's medical examiner said Swartz was discovered hanged and is believed to have died from an apparent suicide.
The young Internet pioneer helped develop RSS when he was 14-years-old and went on to co-found Reddit as well as being a member of Demand Progress -- a political action group that opposed Internet censorship.
Next month Swartz was scheduled to go to trial on federal charges that he allegedly downloaded scientific journals illegally from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology network online archive. He was arrested in Boston for the crime and pleaded not guilty to the 2011 charges. If he was convicted, he would have faced numerous years in prison and multiple fines, The Globe and Mail reports.
No reason has been given as to why the young Internet activist would choose to kill himself. His talents were recognized in the technology world. Online bloggers wrote in a tribute to Aaron Swartz that the genius “had more work to do, and who made the world a better place when he did it.”
Comments