A website that threatened to leak nude photos of Emma Watson was apparently part of a marketing campaign to shut down 4chan, Mashable reported early Wednesday.
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The website, titled Emma You Are Next, launched after Watson gave an impassioned speech about women's rights at the United Nations. The homepage originally featured a 4chan logo and an ominous clock counting down to the release of supposed nude photos of the "Harry Potter" star.
Several media outlets responded to the apparent threats with articles in support of the actress.
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"Regardless of whether any photos are released, the threats against Watson are already an attack on all of us," said Amanda Taub of Vox.com.
"The site threatening Watson was greeted with glee on 4chan and Reddit, where commenters explicitly stated their hope that the threats would force her to abandon her feminist campaigning," Taub added, quoting one commenter as saying, "Feminism is a growing cancer."
At midnight Wednesday, the countdown site reportedly redirected to the homepage of Rantic, a marketing company that claims it was hired by celebrity publicists to promote Internet censorship and shut down 4chan – the website at the center of the recent celebrity photo-hacking scandals.
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