Beiruting News

Monica Lewinsky calls herself 'patient zero' of cyberbullying, joins Twitter

Referring to herself as the "patient zero" of online harassment, the 41-year-old former Clinton administration intern told an audience at a forum in Philadelphia this week that she wants to focus on helping other victims of cyber-bullying to overcome the types of attacks and insults that nearly ruined her life almost a decade ago.

During the Monday morning event in Philly, Lewinski said that she was suicidal in the late 1990s after a highly-publicized affair with President Bill Clinton made her a household name and the butt of endless jokes.

"There was no Facebook,Twitter or Instagram back then," she said at Monday's Forbes' 30 Under 30 summit. "But there were gossip, news and entertainment websites replete with comment sections and emails which could be forwarded. Of course, it was all done on the excruciatingly slow dial up. Yet around the world this story went. A viral phenomenon that, you could argue, was the first moment of truly 'social media'."

That story, of course, is the affair with Pres. Clinton that was published first by the Drudge Report in early 1998 and, within days, was making headlines around the world. Later that year, Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives but acquitted by the Senate; on her part, Lewinsky eventually faded into obscurity until earlier this year when the New Yorker published a tell-all essay she penned concerning the scandal.