Aaron Swartz , an Internet savant who at a young age shaped the online era by co-developing RSS and Reddit and later became a digital activist , has committed suicide . Swartz 's body was found Friday evening in Brooklyn , said Ellen Borakove , a spokeswoman with the New York medical examiner 's office . The 26-year-old had hanged himself in his apartment . His family and partner said they were `` in shock , and have not yet come to terms with his passing . '' `` Aaron 's insatiable curiosity , creativity , and brilliance ; his reflexive empathy and capacity for selfless , boundless love ; his refusal to accept injustice as inevitable -- these gifts made the world , and our lives , far brighter , '' they said in a statement . `` We 're grateful for our time with him , to those who loved him and stood with him , and to all of those who continue his work for a better world . '' A prodigy , Swartz was behind some of the Internet 's defining moments , soaring to heights that many developers only dream of . At the same time , he was plagued by legal problems arising from his aggressive activism , and he was also known to suffer depression , a personal matter that he publicly revealed on his blog . Technology activist Cory Doctorow met Swartz when he was 14 or 15 , Doctorow said on his blog . `` In so many ways , he was an adult , even then , with a kind of intense , fast intellect that really made me feel like he was part and parcel of the Internet society , '' Doctorow wrote . `` But Aaron was also a person who 'd had problems with depression for many years , '' Doctorow blogged . He added that `` whatever problems Aaron was facing , killing himself did n't solve them . Whatever problems Aaron was facing , they will go unsolved forever . '' At age 14 , Swartz co-wrote the RSS specification . He was later admitted to Stanford University , but dropped out after a year because , as he wrote in a blog post , `` I did n't find it a very intellectual atmosphere , since most of the other kids seemed profoundly unconcerned with their studies . '' What he did next was help develop Reddit , the social news website that was eventually bought by heavyweight publisher Conde Nast in 2006 . Swartz then engaged in Internet digital activism , co-founding Demand Progress , a political action group that campaigns against Internet censorship . But he pushed the legal limits , allegedly putting him on the wrong side of the law . In 2011 , he was arrested in Boston for alleged computer fraud and illegally obtaining documents from protected computers . He was later indicted in an incident in which he allegedly stole millions of online documents from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He pleaded not guilty in September , according to MIT 's `` The Tech '' newspaper . Two years earlier , the FBI investigated him after he released millions of U.S. federal court documents online . The alleged hacking was significant because the documents came from the government-run Public Access to Court Electronic Records , or PACER , which typically charges a fee , which was 8 cents a page in 2009 . No charges were filed in that case , but on October 5 , 2009 , he posted online his FBI file that he apparently requested from the agency . He redacted the FBI agents ' names and his personal information , he said . In that file , the FBI said more than 18 million pages with a value of about $ 1.5 million were downloaded from PACER in September 2008 to Swartz 's home in Highland Park , Illinois . `` As I hoped , it 's truly delightful , '' he wrote of his FBI file . Swartz 's family and partner recalled his `` commitment to social justice , '' and called his death `` the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach . '' They criticized U.S. prosecutors for seeking `` an exceptionally harsh array of charges ( for ) an alleged crime that had no victims , '' and MIT because it did not `` stand up for Aaron . '' `` Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney 's office and at MIT contributed to his death , '' they said . Christina DiIorio-Sterling , a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice , declined to comment on Swartz 's case , citing respect for the family . His funeral will be held Tuesday at a synagogue in Highland Park . Swartz , who completed a fellowship at Harvard 's Ethics Center Lab on Institutional Corruption , frequently blogged about his life , success and personal struggles . In some instances , he wrote about death . `` There is a moment , immediately before life becomes no longer worth living , when the world appears to slow down and all its myriad details suddenly become brightly , achingly apparent , '' he wrote in a 2007 post titled `` A Moment Before Dying . '' On November 27 , 2007 , he blogged about `` depressed mood . '' `` Surely there have been times when you 've been sad . Perhaps a loved one has abandoned you or a plan has gone horribly awry . Your face falls . Perhaps you cry . You feel worthless . You wonder whether it 's worth going on , '' he wrote . `` Everything you think about seems bleak — the things you 've done , the things you hope to do , the people around you . You want to lie in bed and keep the lights off . Depressed mood is like that , only it does n't come for any reason and it does n't go for any either . `` At best , you tell yourself that your thinking is irrational , that it is simply a mood disorder , that you should get on with your life . But sometimes that is worse . You feel as if streaks of pain are running through your head , you thrash your body , you search for some escape but find none . And this is one of the more moderate forms , '' he wrote . People we 've lost in 2013 : The lives they lived .
Swartz 's family says federal prosecutors and ME `` contributed to his death '' Swartz , Friday , was found 26 after he hung himself , ME 's office and his family says . He helped pioneer the Internet 's icons of MIT and Reddit at a young age . Swartz then became an aggressive Internet activist , landing him in legal trouble .