In November 2017, nude selfie pictures of Barton surfaced online, which he acknowledged were authentic, and which he apologized for to his constituents. He confirmed he himself took the photo, apparently from a video of him masturbating, and sent it to women with whom he was having consensual sexual relationships. An anonymous Twitter user posted the photo of Barton, who had pointed his camera upward from below his genitals, next to a text message reading, "I want you soo bad. Right now. Deep and hard."