It appears 4chan hackers didn't threaten Emma Watson with a nude-photo leak after all

It appears 4chan hackers didn&#039;t threaten Emma Watson with a nude-photo leak after all

(Image credit: Rantic Marketing)

last updated 8 January 2015

If you were enraged and disgusted over the story about trollish 4chan hackers threatening to leak naked photos of Emma Watson for giving a speech on feminism at the United Nations, well, that appears to have been the point. The countdown clock at the "Emma You Are Next" website, affixed with a 4chan logo, expired a few days early, and by Wednesday morning the site redirected users to a site run by Rantic Marketing, aimed at shutting down 4chan.

Now, Rantic's homepage features a #ShutDown4chan logo, brags about how many people EmmaYouAreNext.com reached, and issues its call to arms: "Join us as we shut down 4chan and prevent more private pictures from being leaked. None of these women deserve this and together we can make a change." Or, we can defame a collective of internet message board users in a vain, attention-seeking push to make them gather at some other website.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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