He subsequently uploaded an 'erotic' photo of himself lying in the bath

Ricky Gervais has received a backlash on Twitter after suggesting that the celebrities who had their nude photos hacked were to blame - because they had taken and stored the photos in the first place.

The comedian posted a message to his 5.99million followers saying: 'Celebrities, make it harder for hackers to get nude pics of you from your computer by not putting nude pics of yourself on the computer.'

His comment was quickly criticised online, and he was forced to delete the tweet before backtracking on the controversial claim.

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The comedian was criticised after posting this message on Twitter - blaming celebrities for taking the photos and storing them on their computers in the first place

A subsequent message said: 'Of course the hackers are 100 per cent to blame but you can still makes jokes about it. Jokes don't portray your true serious feelings on a subject.'

He then wrote: 'It's more important to spend your energy trying to stop actual bad things than to run around trying to stop jokes about bad things.'

Gervais also said: 'This tweet does not condone anything' and 'Offence is the collateral damage of free speech.'

Gervais was forced to backtrack after making the comments on social media

During the rant against social media users, he also brought Richard Dawkins into the equation.

He recently caused a public outcry when he tweeted that it would be immoral to carry on with a pregnancy if the mother knew the foetus had Down Synfrome

Gervais tweeted, then subsequently deleted: 'I hope Richard Dawkins tweets something soon. He's a bigger idiot magnet than me and it will give me time to slip out the back way. Haha.'

A list of the alleged victims of the hack - a staggering 101 in total - has been posted online; most of whom have not seen any photographs leaked by the hacker.

Following the publication of the images of Sunday night, experts have voiced their concerns over how the hacker managed to access them. Now, reports suggest that a specific flaw in the 'Find My iPhone' service may have been to blame.

Despite the story breaking last night, Apple is still yet to confirm or deny whether its software was the target of the hacking. However, in the meantime, it has quietly issued a 'patch', or fix, for the bug.

Following the publication of the photos, a spokesman for oscar winner Lawrence confirmed to MailOnline the images of her are genuine.

'This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence,' the emailed statement read.

The anonymous person also admitted that they were unhappy with how much money he or she has made from circulating the stolen photographs.