The supposed threat by hackers to leak private nude pictures of British actress Emma Watson has been revealed to be a campaign by a marketing organization aiming to shut down the website 4Chan, according to Mashable.
The purported threat was made via the website www.emmayouarenext.com earlier this week, supposedly by hackers of the many celebrity pictures leaked via 4Chan and widely spread in the past month. The website featured an image of Watson wiping a tear and a countdown timer beside it.
As it turned out, the website was started by social media company Rantic, which claims to have been hired by celebrity publicists to mount a campaign for internet censorship.
The URL emmayouarenext.com now redirects to the company's website www.rantic.com where an open letter to US President Barack Obama can be seen, among other messages.
"We have been hired by celebrity publicists to bring this disgusting issue to attention. The recent 4Chan celebrity nude leaks in the past two months have been an invasion of privacy and is also clear indication that the internet NEEDS to be censored," the letter says.
"Every Facebook like, share and Twitter mention will count as a social signature - and will be step closer to shutting down www.4chan.org," it continues.
The website's banner contains the message "SREAD THE WORD, Join us as we shutdown 4Chan and prevent more private pictures from being leaked. None of these women deserve this and together we can make a change."
The banner also mentions the hashtag "#SHUTDOWN4CHAN."
The website claims emmayouarenext.com reached over 48 million visitors, 7 million Facebook shares/Likes and 3 million Twitter mentions.
The original website threatened to release nude pictures of Watson on Saturday at 12 am ET, but on Tuesday it said the photos would be leaked on an earlier date. By midnight Wednesday, it was replaced by the new website.
The first website was initially claimed to have been started by hackers after Watson's lauded speech at the United Nations on Saturday, according to The Epoch Times.
In the days that followed, users of the website Reddit did an investigation and eventually found that the website was run by Rantic.
