54°F
weather icon Cloudy

Online activist, Reddit co-founder Swartz dies at 26

NEW YORK - Authorities say a co-founder of Reddit and activist who fought to make online content free to the public has been found dead.

A spokeswoman for New York's medical examiner says 26-year-old Aaron Swartz hanged himself in his Brooklyn apartment and was found Friday.

Swartz was a prodigy who as a young teenager helped create RSS. He co-founded the social news website Reddit and directed the political action group Demand Progress that campaigns against Internet censorship.

In 2011, he was arrested in Boston and charged with stealing millions of scientific journals from a computer archive at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Swartz pleaded not guilty. His federal trial on computer fraud charges was to begin next month. If convicted, he could have faced decades in prison and a fortune in fines.

MOST READ
Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
THE LATEST
Trump: Kennedy Center to close for 2 years for renovations in July

President Donald Trump said Sunday he will move to close Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for two years starting in July for construction.

Judge orders ICE to release 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, his dad

A 5-year-old boy and his father must be released by Tuesday from the Texas center where they’ve been held after being detained by immigration officers in Minnesota, a federal judge ordered Saturday.

MORE STORIES