4chan not at fault for Emma threats

[ChairmanAgnostic]

According to the International Business Times:


A threat to leak nude photos of actress Emma Watson following her game-changing HeForShe gender equality speech at the United Nations in New York this week has been revealed to be a hoax. Rantic Marketing, the social media enterprise behind the buzzed-about website EmmaYouAreNext.com, which included a countdown clock for when nude images of the British film star were set to be released on 4chan, used the platform to promote an anti-4chan campaign.

At midnight Wednesday, instead of releasing the rumored forthcoming nudes of the 24-year-old “Harry Potter” star, the website redirected visitors to Rantic.com, where they were met with a message pledging to #SHUTDOWN4CHAN. “Spread the word!” reads the page’s welcome announcement. The hoax comes three weeks after the first round of female celebrities' hacked images were leaked on the site and Reddit’s “The Fappening” boards. “Join us as we shut down 4chan and prevent more private pictures from being leaked,” said Rantic. “None of these women deserve this, and together we can make a change.”

Rantic claims to have been hired by unidentified celebrity publicists to create the hoax in an effort to shut down the controversial image-sharing site following the recent nude photo scandals that have affected stars such as “The Hunger Games” actress Jennifer Lawrence, actress Gabrielle Union, Olympian McKayla Maroney and reality-TV star Kim Kardashian.


- - -

While many of the criticisms here may be valid, if we go around calling 4chan terrorists, especially in view of the above, we end up looking like the ones we have criticized. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025573731

[Capt. Obvious]

1. They're still terrorists part of the Axis Of Evil

4Chan, Fark, and Reddit.

[seabeyond]

5. i get there are men that really laugh it up. for those of us that have been the target, we do not

find it so amusing.

*jury. i recently had a post hidden when replying to this poster, for the sole reason that i did not "get" that he was being sarcastic. he has a sarcasm tag in his signature. we cannot know for certain if ALL of his posts are sarcastic, or if he is seriously taking a position, since the sarcasm tag follows him around every post. please, do not hide my post because i am addressing what he wrote and not his sig line. thank you.

[Jester Messiah]

6. Fark and Reddit, really?

I know Reddit has a seedy underbelly, but it's not nearly as bad as 4chan. And Fark is relatively civilized these days.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

20. reddit actually released many of the nude celeb photos before 4chan did

from what I've read since, along with 'anonib'. I didn't see any particular mention of Fark in relation to events of the last few weeks.

[seabeyond]

22. and they should both be prosecuted whomever is responsible. nt

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

24. Those who posted, sure.

And I assumed that there was already an investigation looking into that, perhaps more than one investigation, depending on jurisdiction.

[seabeyond]

25. we need laws to address the tech world. from what i hear. nt

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

26. Yes, it's long past time that the law caught up with technology.

And that our lawmakers were tech savvy enough to understand the ramifications of what they write, as well as what they fail to address, and how it will be used by those who 'inhabit' cyberspace.

[seabeyond]

28. exactly. they need to be prosecuted to, so a line is clear. first step. nt

[seabeyond]

2. Online abuse, leaked nudes and revenge porn: this is nothing less than terrorism against women

The abuse of women on the internet, like the hacking of female celebrities' naked photos, is not just intended to hurt the individuals involved. These are deliberately outrageous acts designed to create a spectacle and to instil fear in a target population - in other words, terrorism.

*

These codes provide cover for a pastime as old as patriarchy: punishing women who step out of line. The nude photos of female celebrities, including the actress Jennifer Lawrence, were presumably hacked for the lulz – as well as for bitcoins, which a 4channer initially requested in exchange for them. Now it seems that half of Reddit’s users have decided it is their chivalrous duty to find the identity of the 4chan user who hacked the pictures. The other half are busy uploading the photos to the internet every time an image-hosting service removes them. Somewhere out there, I hope, a psychology student is gathering material for an excellent thesis. In the meantime, something strikes me about both the celebrity photo hack and the harassment of Anita Sarkeesian and Z. This is a form of terrorism. (Sarkeesian agrees: “There is just no other word for it,” she tweeted on 31 August.)

What we are witnessing are deliberately outrageous acts designed to create a spectacle and to instil fear in a target population. Where Osama Bin Laden watched in approval as every news network endlessly replayed the footage of a plane hitting a tower, the hackers and harassers must feel thrilled by all the carefully search-engine-optimised headlines above articles decrying the latest leaked pictures. It is a function of successful terrorism that the media becomes unavoidably complicit in spreading the terror. There is no way to report the story without increasing its potency. We cannot stop looking.

As for the target population, tell me that young women aren’t supposed to look at the harassment of Sarkeesian for being a public figure and get the message: “This could happen to you, you uppity bitch. Watch your mouth.” The leaking of the celebrity nude photos has the same impetus as revenge porn. As the internet heaves under the weight of freely exposed nipples, violation has become a form of titillation. (If you must see an actress’s breasts, may I recommend watching pretty much any 18-rated movie made this year?) Any expression of women’s sexuality moves them into Camp Slut, where they are fair game for punishment and humiliation.

*more

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1255&pid=50750

[sharp_stick]

3. 4chan aren't terrorists

they are and will continue to be referred to correctly as the "asshole of the internet populated by emotionally stunted dickwads".

[VanillaRhapsody]

4. script kiddies

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. now THAT I can agree with.

Frankly, I never go there, except out of idle curiosity, but I still thought calling them terrorists was a bit much.

[bullwinkle428]

18. I like "human detritus dumping ground of the Internet".

[hifiguy]

41. An apt summary.

Apart from the brony community I can't think of anything worthwhile that has come out of 4chan, but even the trolls need someplace to call home I guess.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

7. That's one reason I didn't recommend that other thread

and my only comment was about how 4chan is more than just the users of the /b/ subforum. Even scanning through the comments in that forum, what I saw was puzzlement and many people saying they were fine with what Watson said, or didn't care, and only a few rage-troll comments hating on Watson. No boasting from anyone about actually having nude photos of her. There was something 'off' about the whole thing from the start. So the charges of 'terrorism' because '4chan was threatening to release nude photos of Watson' to 'prevent her from speaking out', were aimed at the wrong people, since the people actually making the terroristic threats were anti-4chan 'celebrity publicists'.

Will those people be called 'terrorists' now? Somehow I sincerely doubt it.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. good points, all.

Still, a wide open intertube should allow for little green apples, whirled nut daily, a DU, even an ESPN that sidelines a reporter for telling the truth. The price of liberty and freedom of speech, even if a lot of it is free dumb.

[seabeyond]

10. so, they should be left alone when threatening the presidents life, and blatantly org. an attack?

free speech and all.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. sorry, I won't bite.

Some forms of speech, which are intended and expected to cause harm, foment violence, or even instill fear by yelling fire in a crowded theater are not permissible in RL just the same as they should not be protected speech on the tubes.

Did you know why yelling fire in a theater was so bad in years past? Because they used limelight, a stick of lime heated to incandescence by ignited natural gas. A costume, a curtain, or a faux snowflake could cause a catastrophe instantaneously.

[seabeyond]

12. a threat is criminal. watson was threatened. that is criminal. they should be prosecuted.

bite or no....

you did

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

15. I agree entirely.

But Watson was not actually threatened by 4chan users, as it turns out. The threat came from a viral marketing firm trying to fan outrage against 4chan. They should indeed be prosecuted for using such threats in their false flag operation.

[seabeyond]

21. i understand it was not even to fiegn outrage against 4chan, but that just another hoax.

and i do not care. prosecute what they did to 4chan also.

all that. the motive, intent, who... matters not. the threat was out there. whomever gets charged.

for me, it was NEVER 4chan. a site of bottom feeders. do not give a fuck. for me, the argument was

using the net to threaten women by humiliation, degradation, shame to shut them up.

that was my ONLY issue.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

23. The threat was always against Watson.

I don't see anything to prosecute them on in re trying to smear 4chan. That's merely along the lines of 'sinking to their level' on tactics.

So I think we agree as to the reason to prosecute as well.

[Scootaloo]

30. Yes, the persons responsible should be prosecuted for the threats

THose persons are apparently some nitwits running this "rantic" operation

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

14. Not necessarily - I was actually just pointing out

that outrage should be aimed at the people who actually do the things for which that outrage occurs.

It is perfectly acceptable to be outraged over the actual release of private nude photos, for instance. And the people who populate the /b/ subforum of 4chan.org were happily onboard with that. They just weren't behind the 'threat website' aimed at Emma Watson.

And, in fact, there were postings that showed they had already figured out the 'rantic' link at least a half day before the supposed new pics were to be released, which makes one wonder if, had someone not figured out that link, the website would have remained a simple attempt to cast '4chan' as being the people making 'terroristic threats' against Emma Watson for speaking out on the need for men to embrace and understand feminism. It might well have simply remained a false flag operation, rather than, after the link was discovered, switching over to be a 'call to shut down 4 chan'.

Either way, the Emma site was a blatant attempt to fan the flames of outrage against the 4chan website, rather than an outrage perpetrated by the 4chan website.

[LittleBlue]

27. You're a brave man

The handful of times I've tried going to 4chan, there were pictures of mutilated bodies. And yeah that's the point of the forum, to shock, but... cannot unsee.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

31. I've seen those in rl as well.

But the way things are set up, you can at least avoid many such postings - they seem to require a top level picture with each top level post, so you're going to see a thumbnail, but you can at least not enlarge it, and know to avoid that thread. The posts that actually shocked me more were the ones where people were claiming they had or were going to mutilate or kill pets. But the whole /b/ subforum is chock full of homophobia, racism, sexism, antisemitism. It's not a happy place.

[seabeyond]

32. what is /b/? i am seeing it all over now. nt

[LittleBlue]

34. 4chan has many subforums

They like to be weird, so their forum titles are just letters. If you type in "4chan.org" and add /b at the end, you get a forum called "random". Beware, it's full of violent porn and dead bodies.

[seabeyond]

35. not going there. no interest. thank you for the information. nt

[pnwmom]

13. 4chan is at fault for what they did to the other celebrities. The issue hasn't gone away. n/t

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

17. Among many others.

Although 4chan was given the most media attention, many of the photos first appeared on reddit and anonib before being copied to 4chan, imgur and dozens of other sites that host pictures, including celebrity nudes. 4chan certainly shares fault, but they're not at all alone.

[ZombieHorde]

16. There are still many bigoted assholes on 4chan,

they just weren't behind this particular threat.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

19. Exactly.

I've been looking them over since they started being discussed so much here on DU, and there are a lot of truly disturbed individuals who post over there, as well as the common variety web trolls. But the site actually has a lot of (fairly) normal people who post in forums other than the /b/ one that is so twisted.

[LostInAnomie]

29. I have never understood how a whole forum site gets blamed for what...

... a user posts. It's like people in the media and the actual users of the internet forget how the internet works every time they are offended.

Let's say tomorrow I get the notion to post a thread threatening to leak pictures of John Boehner's cock on DU if he doesn't pass immigration reform. Chances are, a few DUers would laugh or tell me to do it. Does that mean Democratic Underground and Skinner are personally responsible for the threat? No.

Most people are smart enough to know that forum users can post pretty much anything before mods catch it and take it down.

[seabeyond]

33. from what i understand, on 4chan, this particulars groups intent is to go after women.

that is what their group is on 4chan. like revenge porn. the whole groups intent is to ridicule, shame, humiliate, degrade women.

[LostInAnomie]

36. You'd be wrong

I believe this was posted on the /b/, which is an anything goes forum. It would be the 4Chan equivalent of the DU lounge. It has no designated purpose and most of the time it's just dumb shit with no real intent other than humor behind it.

[NaturalHigh]

37. I've never been to 4chan...

but it sure seems to get a lot of people riled up.

[redgreenandblue]

38. It is an anime board, but the essence is that it has some minimally regulated forums.

In the sub-forum "/b/" they remove nothing that isn't explicitly illegal.

It is an interesting experiment. Of course it leads to bigots battling it out, but that
isn't the entirety of it.

Personally, I think it is good for places like that to exist. It is not for the easily offended though.

[NaturalHigh]

39. "Personally, I think it is good for places like that to exist."

I do too. The easily offended should just stay away.

[Hayabusa]

40. I love /tg/ the tabletop game board

they have a great community of Flames of War players.