On September 1st, stolen nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Kirsten Dunst, and several more women were released by anonymous members of the notorious online site 4chan. Three weeks later, individuals on 4chan who went by anonymously promised to repeat the action. Emma Watson, who played the role of adolescent schoolgirl Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, would be their next target Emma Watson nude.
The figures in anonymity seemed more ordered this time. A dedicated website, emmawatsonyouarenext.com, was created shortly after the threats surfaced online, and a countdown to the moment and day they will disclose the photos was initiated. Initially, the countdown indicated this coming Saturday, but it suddenly advanced to Wednesday, September 24, at 12 AM ET.
emmayouarenext.com turned out to be a hoax
As the clock reached twelve, however, no nude photos were made public. Rather, visitors to emmayouarenext.com were sent to the webpage of a marketing business, with a giant white hashtag #shutdown4chan printed on a black backdrop beside a crossed-out rendition of 4chan’s four-leaf clover emblem. The website was a scam, created to fool people into seeing purported attacks on 4chan rather than real images of Watson.
Emma Watson nude photo threats
The website says, “None of these women deserve this.” “Join us as we shut down 4chan and prevent more pictures from being leaked.” In addition to advocating for the privacy of personal images, the website extols its social media achievements. According to the organizer, 48 million people visited emmayouarenext.com, and it had 3 million mentions on Twitter and 7 million shares and likes on Facebook. These startling statistics provide a clear picture of the number of persons who are willing to strip young ladies naked for their selfish enjoyment.
The campaign is apparently designed to shut down 4chan
However, it’s also repulsive. The campaign’s creators may be more interested in advertising their products and services than privacy and gender equality concerns since they are putting the results front and center and tweeting about how popular emmayouarenext.com has been. The campaign’s goal is admirable, but its originator is dubious. News of the intended “leak” of Watson’s photos was greeted with frothing excitement and sexual threats by 4chan members. Before the countdown on the hoax ended, several Reddit users were able to identify it and connected the perpetrator to FoxWeekly, a website that uses content from other news sites to get views and Facebook likes, and Swenzy, a business that buys views, likes, and followers.
Though the ad doesn’t have the polish you’d expect from anything supported by A-list celebrities, it claims to be funded by celebrity publicists who hired the marketing business in question. The website has a letter addressed to President Obama that is full of bizarre requests and language mistakes. The campaign’s organizers claim that every Facebook like or Twitter mention is a “social signature” that indicates that we “will be step closer to shutting down www.4chan.org [sic]” and that the internet “NEEDS to be censored.”
The company behind the campaign is crowing about its viral success
Owing to 4chan’s naturally anonymous comment system, it’s unclear if the marketing firm spearheading the campaign created the post claiming to have Emma Watson’s personal images, or if its agents just took advantage of the rumors to quickly develop the website. Should the campaign’s creators indeed be associated with Swenzy, they possess prior expertise in crafting such deceptions. A countdown website like to this one that hinted to a significant NASA announcement surfaced in October of last year. It was a bogus notice that directed viewers to a music video on YouTube.
However, despite the campaign’s dubious origins and dubious tactics, the prank could have positive effects. The media’s strong response to the possibility of another young woman’s personal images being released has helped create a focal point for conversation on how women are portrayed in society. This week at the UN, Watson gave a moving speech on the damage that gender discrimination brings to all people. Hopefully, her words will continue to dominate the news cycle rather than her physical appearance.
