Emma Watson Nude Photo Leak Was a Marketing Stunt to Shut Down 4Chan

[Kablooie]

Source: mashable.com

The nude photo leak surrounding Emma Watson threatened earlier this week turned out to be a viral marketing stunt by an organization known as Rantic Marketing to shut down the website 4chan.

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By midnight Wednesday, Watson's face and the countdown clock had been replaced on the website, which now pushes visitors to Rantic Marketing's own homepage, which includes an open letter to President Barack Obama that claims celebrity publicists hired the company to popularize a call for internet censorship and the end of 4chan.

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A Reddit thread posted on Tuesday outed Rantic Marketing as being the source for the website, and pointed to a pastebin document where someone going by "Gammarays" connected Rantic to the threats as well as the online magazine Foxweekly.com.

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Foxweekly was one of the first websites to blame 4chan for creating the threatening website, however they included no evidence that this was true.

Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/09/24/emma-watson-nude-leak-viral-marketing/

---

A tabloid named Foxweekly doesn't sound like a terribly reputable publication.

The 4chan site now claims that they had nothing to do with Emma Watson threat website.

This sounds like right wing tactics.
You pretend to be someone else, do something horrendous in their name and then publicize it.

[intaglio]

1. Given that 4chan was the source of the many "Hermione Granger" photoshopped porn pics

Their excuses sound a little sad and self serving.

Do they also claim that the IRC channel that 4chan members used to organised threats and intimidation against Zoe Quinn was also a fake?

[Blue_Adept]

3. Photoshopped celebrity pics have been a thing since... forever?

I remember a whole lot of them in the 90's on the various rec.arts.whatever discussion areas and elsewhere. It's certainly not a 4chan original thing.

[intaglio]

7. So the idea that it is traditional justifies the practise?

Oh, and inserting "celebrities" into images goes back even further to at least the Renaissance. That still does not justify it in current circumstances.

4chan, particularly 4chan /b/, has been a cesspit since about 5 seconds after its inception. It coordinates attacks on those it sees as targets via IRC channels as was shown by Zoe Quinn Zoe Quinn’s screenshots of 4chan’s dirty tricks were just the appetizer. Here’s the first course of the dinner, directly from the IRC log

Still going to defend them?

[Blue_Adept]

11. Where was I defending them?

I was simply saying that this is NOT a NEW concept. That it's been around for a long time whereas some people seem to think it's an utterly new thing.

Thanks for putting words in my mouth that were never there.

[intaglio]

17. Oh so you didn't mean to imply that because others have done that

4chan is good with you.

Glad you made that clear

[Blue_Adept]

24. Way to infer things that aren't there

Says far more about you than me.

[intaglio]

31. No, your post was quite clear

You stated that such photoshop efforts have been part of the internet for years. What was the point of that if not to raise the idea that such behaviour is normal? Think about it.

[Blue_Adept]

34. No, it was providing some context as some folks seem to think this is a new thing

There are people shocked that such a thing has happened. It's not new. It's not right, but it's not new.

But whatever. you've made up your mind, you keep attributing things to what I said that isn't there.

[Jim Lane]

55. Welcome to DU, the land that reading comprehension forgot

I'd estimate that, in about one-third of the instances where someone posts to disagree with something I wrote, the disagreement is actually with something I didn't write.

And, like you, I've experienced this even after I expressly disclaimed the view that the other person really wanted to attack.

I can't offer you any constructive advice on dealing with the problem. It appears to be ineradicable.

[FLPanhandle]

28. Freedom of speech issue.

Photoshopping fake pictures, talking a lot of bluster, generally being little pricks isn't a valid reason to shut down a site.

First off, it's a waste of time as they'll just move on to a new site. Kill that, then they'll create a another one. Total waste of time.

[intaglio]

32. So issuing threats is covered by Freeze Peach

Nice to know that we have such an expert in our midst.

[FLPanhandle]

37. So, let's shut down every internet site where posters issue some threat

Such a brilliant idea! That'll work.

LOL.

[intaglio]

44. Have you actually read any of the threats?

Check out the rape and murder threats made against Anita Sarkeesian - if a Muslim made those sort of threats they would be hauled in for questioning.

Threats interfere with the free speech of the person threatened a fact and all you are doing is whimpering about the free speech of a group of creepy gamebros.

[FLPanhandle]

56. Shutting down one site is stupid and useless

The people if identified can be prosecuted, but shutting down a site? Hell, within 10 minutes they'd launch a different one.

Stupid waste of time and energy.

[intaglio]

57. So the minor sanction of shutting down a website full of haters

would not serve as a warning, to at least a few of these creeps, that their behaviour was unacceptable? You want to go to the expense of a prosecution, trial and punishment; fine

[FLPanhandle]

61. If they are doing anything criminal, then, yes, prosecute the individuals.

If you think shutting down a site would do anything, then you don't understand the internet.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

45. Wait, they're on IRC???

OMG, what about AOL chat, anyone check that for possible clandestine activity?

[intaglio]

46. Well, what a surprise, someone trying to be funny about harrassment

If you bothered actually doing some background research you would find out that 4channers used IRC to co-ordinate their hate attacks on various women and the men who support them. They don't Use AOL because that would be uncool preferring some of the private reddit channels when they need to co-ordinate their sick little attacks.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

48. Well, MY research shows almost no one uses IRC anymore

So there.

But I'm glad you're on top of the modern day WarGames going on between a bunch of cellar dwelling clowns.

[intaglio]

51. Thank you for displaying your ignorance

4chan did a document dump of the IRC log to try and slow down the allegations Zoe Quinn’s screenshots of 4chan’s dirty tricks were just the appetizer. Here’s the first course of the dinner, directly from the IRC log

Now is there anything you'd like to rethink or are you still intent on defending poisonous little creeps?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

53. Defending?

Hardly. I just called them cellar dwelling clowns. But of course, you don't read well.

Then there's obsessing. I think it's funny for people to obsess over cellar dwelling clowns who aren't going to do jack shit.

[intaglio]

58. Yes, defending by belittling the case against them

BTW have you changed your mind about IRC yet?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

59. No

It was dead in 2002 and it still is.

[Feral Child]

2. I wonder

if our resident censors will post here to admit they were wrong?

[intaglio]

8. So the OP was a publicity stunt - the responses of 4channers to that OP were not

The stunt revealed 4chan to be the home of small minded little misogynists with little in the way of morality.

[Feral Child]

12. Well, then.

That's a decent side-step you got there.

You wouldn't happen to be a politician by trade, would you?

Or a preacher?

[intaglio]

15. LMF'nAO 4Chan responded to a hoax with its usual hate and you characterise that as a "sidestep"

Are you a 4chan fanboi? or just someone who likes their hateful campaigns?

[Feral Child]

18. You've descended to poor grammar and personal insults.

I'm done here.

Have a better one...

[intaglio]

19. Otherwise known as "lalalalala, I can't hear you"

Buh-bye

[geek tragedy]

10. no, it's still a pit of misogynistic psychopaths and wannabe rapists

as their eager reception of this hoax--when they thought it was real--proved

[Feral Child]

13. Thanks for not disappointing me.

[geek tragedy]

14. those of us who oppose misogyny and rape threats have a pretty consistent track record

as do those who disagree with us

[Feral Child]

16. "You're either for us or against us."

Where have I heard that before?

[intaglio]

20. Where has that been said here?

Or are you just making stuff up to defend the indefensible?

[Feral Child]

21. Look, some crappy marketing firm ran a game on the gullible

to undermine a web company's business.

You fell for it. Spin it how you like, you fell for the con.

As I understand it, the way to run a successful Con is to tell the marks what they want to hear.

[cyberswede]

25. It looks like the creepy 4chan guys fell for it, and

that con definitely told THEM what they wanted to hear.

The misogyny on display by the 4chan guys is still worthy of scorn, regardless of the veracity of the "threat."

[Feral Child]

42. What, have you queued up again?

My post wasn't about 4chan. It was about people here at DU that label everyone that disagrees with them as "misogynistic". Some of us are quite sympathetic and supportive of Feminism and it's irksome to be labeled as MRA or "another misogynistic asshole" because we disagree about an isolated detail of discussion of feminism.

It's about folks at DU who fell for this scam because it coincided with their desires and expectations.
They believed it was real because they wanted it to be real.

I don't know anything about 4chan. I gather that it's similar to DU, but without the primary focus on politics. I'm absofuckinglylutely sure that there are misogynists there, because it's on the internet. Pretty sure there's some adolescent assholes there, too. Same reasoning.

Might just be some nice folks, some fellow-travelers there also.


I've never been there because I have limited time for internet discussion and I choose to spend it here. Primarily because there are a lot fewer assholes here.

When any difference of opinion is met with derision, scorn, and aggressive name-calling, it alienates people. When good progressive people meet that sort of narrow-minded aggression here, it stifles discussion and makes for an unpleasant ambience.

Now, if it doesn't displease you like a it did a poster upstream, I'm going to go silent in this thread. I've had my say and don't wish to discuss this any further with people that are, in my opinion, intractable and fixated on their own purity of ideals.

Maybe I'll go see if there's any reasonable discussion to be had in the Gungeon.

[cyberswede]

43. What are you on about?

I didn't say your post was about 4chan. I merely pointed out that the 4chan creeps fell for the scam for the very reasons you mentioned.

[Cerridwen]

22. For misogyny and rape or against misogyny and rape equals "for us or against us?" Uh, wut?

For misogyny and rape threats or against misogyny and rape threats equals "You're either for us or against us?"

In that case, put me on the side against misogyny and rape threats. I'm weird that way.

What other forms of hatred and prejudice do you think we should tolerate in the name of tolerance and inclusion? Personally, I'd rather not have racists, misogynists, classists, homophobes, anti-Semites, and the generally prejudice sitting under the "big tent" with me. Leave the limbaughs, coulters, schlaflys, and other anti-all-that-is-human-and-humane to wallow under their own fucking tent.

[Cerridwen]

4. Were the replies to the hoax part of the hoax? Or did 4chan do those all on their own?

Were the replies to the hoax part of the hoax? Or did 4chan do those all on their own?

A few outlets noting that it was probably a hoax also reported on the responses;

“It is real and going to happen this weekend. That feminist bitch Emma is going to show the world she is as much of a whore as any woman.”

“in a documentary about the royal family and the media, she was included explained how the paparazzi were hunting her down for upskirt pics and etc, they where waiting patiently for her 18th birthday to hit so they could act like shameless savages , and when it hit, so they did , they laid down on the floor in the streets and such to snap photos of her…
she is a delicate flower and it is time for her fans to see her in full bloom, unlike your shitty cow tit attention whore there”

“she makes stupid feminist speeches at UN, and now her nudes will be online, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH”

Those aren’t even the bad ones. There are others that actually get violent, which I will not be posting. I’m also not linking to the board, as it contains really disturbing images.

From this link: http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/228407/4chan-threatens-emma-watson-with-nude-photo-leak-over-un-speech-on-gender-equality/

The paragraph before this quote above includes speculation about the hoax nature of the website now being reported as a hoax.

The website may have been a marketing hoax, were the responses from 4chan members part of the hoax? I doubt it given their history.

[Katashi_itto]

5. So that makes it ok to shut them down? Damn, maybe we ought to do the same with Discussionist

then. I didn't realize it was so easy.

[Cerridwen]

6. What on earth does your reply have to do with my post? (edited)

My post:

Were the replies to the hoax part of the hoax? Or did 4chan do those all on their own?

A few outlets noting that it was probably a hoax also reported on the responses;

“It is real and going to happen this weekend. That feminist bitch Emma is going to show the world she is as much of a whore as any woman.”

“in a documentary about the royal family and the media, she was included explained how the paparazzi were hunting her down for upskirt pics and etc, they where waiting patiently for her 18th birthday to hit so they could act like shameless savages , and when it hit, so they did , they laid down on the floor in the streets and such to snap photos of her…
she is a delicate flower and it is time for her fans to see her in full bloom, unlike your shitty cow tit attention whore there”

“she makes stupid feminist speeches at UN, and now her nudes will be online, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH”

Those aren’t even the bad ones. There are others that actually get violent, which I will not be posting. I’m also not linking to the board, as it contains really disturbing images.


From this link: http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/228407/4chan-threatens-emma-watson-with-nude-photo-leak-over-un-speech-on-gender-equality/

The paragraph before this quote above includes speculation about the hoax nature of the website now being reported as a hoax.

The website may have been a marketing hoax, were the responses from 4chan members part of the hoax? I doubt it given their history.

See anything about me saying shut down 4chan?

I posted about 4chan's despicable responses. Their responses are not excused because they got punked. Their responses were disgusting.

Do I need to say again what I think of 4chan's responses to the hoax in order for you to understand what it is I'm saying?

I find 4chan's responses horrific.

edited to add: and what the bloody hell does this have to do with disscusionist?

[Chan790]

60. Yeah...the dissonance is startling.

I wonder how many people here actually understand that the tactics being used by Rantic/Foxweekly/SocialVevo (they're all the same people, if you were not aware) to hoax and effect a shutdown of 4chan could just as easily be used to stifle speech by attempting to shut down any website their clients find threatening to their worldview...like this one.

Coincidentally, this isn't hacktivism...they're mercs. They'd be just as happy to take down DU if some Kochbagger wrote them a check to do it. It's not about feminism, 4chan, invasion of privacy or Watson for them.

[blogslut]

9. The little shits at foxweekly have quite the sketchy history

The Daily Dot has been writing about them for a while. They trade in selling bot traffic to social media-type sites and garnering publicity by creating lame hoaxes:

http://www.dailydot.com/business/swenzy-foxweekly-news-hoax-time-cnn-social-media/
http://www.dailydot.com/technology/socialvevo-swenzy-fake-twitter-followers-spam-attack/

Their current identity as Rantic/Foxweekly is like their third or fourth identity because they keep getting outed as scammers.

[Sunlei]

23. so is fox the icloud hackers? not just photos stored on those clouds.

[TygrBright]

26. ahhh... This makes sense. Thanks for posting. n/t

It's amazing how little ANY of the media bothered to do their homework about 4chan and, more particularly, the /b/ forum where all of this went down.

The key thing to know is that any time you say "4chan is" (meaning participants on their fora) you're already giving misinformation, because there is NO commonality among the myriad factions, groups, and users of the site.

Some of 4chan's fora (there are a great many) are relatively quiet, and even to some extent coherent in the sense that most regulars on that forum share a good deal of common ground on the topic of the forum.

/b/ is not that forum, though.

Yes, there are plenty of immature, hostile, misogynistic script-kiddie wannabes who hang there. The herd instinct does operate (viz. the pile-on after this particular posting.)

However, in the main, /b/ may be as close to a working headquarters for anarchy as the human race has yet devised. And that by design.

/b/ is also the place where the organizing was done to out the solons of the town that allowed a rape victim who was left on her parents' lawn in the dead of winter and nearly froze to death, and they refused to go after the known and identified perpetrators.

/b/ is a place where people who want to "stick it" to any group, institution, spokesbot, etc. for those who assume power or control, can communicate. It's the Internet equivalent of a flashmob phone tree, or rather hundreds of them, since they operate on confusing and even contradictory philosophical bases (not to mention impulses.)

You can see why this would be a valuable place to put out of business entirely.

That, in itself, is a fairly ludicrous ambition.

If /b/ were pulled from the 4chan site tomorrow morning, it would simply reconstitute elsewhere by noon.

Do smarmy little misogynist trolls hang out there? Yep.

Do dedicated anti-capitalist hackers hang out there? Yep.

Do independent anarchists with socially unacceptable senses of humor hang out there? Hell, yes.

Is there ANY point in trying to fathom, control, defame, shame, corral, or even collaborate with them?

That may be the new definition of "futility."

They're like any other social phenomenon: If there's a Heisenberg effect, it becomes part of the phenomenon. You can observe all you want, but you cannot direct, control, or even influence to any very lasting or substantial effect.

amusedly,
Bright

[The Traveler]

29. You win the internets today

At least this corner of it. You seem to be the only one here who understands /b/ ... which is (admittedly) at best a mixed bag and often a cesspool. I look in on it from time to time, mostly to check the weather since a lot of internet action (both noble and gross) emerges from that forum.

You cannot think of /b/ as a coherent entity ... it is as likely to organize social justice operations as distribute revenge porn.

Trav

[TygrBright]

30. Exactly. And it's an indication of how badly "journalism" has devolved...

...that apparently none of those "reporting" on this story even bothered to ankle on over and do some research. It's not like it's hard to find.

Granted, you need a strong stomach and a fairly sick sense of humor to spend any substantial amount of time there, but still...

agreeably,
Bright

[villager]

35. Well put, Bright. Many here have as little understanding of the Internet as the CNN commentator...

...talking about "a hacker named 4Chan."

If you can be lead that easily into calling for whole sites to be shut down, well, then I guess when a terrorist group with murky roots and funding puts out a video of something horrific, you'll be all on board for full-out war, too.

Which is not to say that the videos aren't horrific, or that the extracted comments from 4Chan aren't horrific (real violence vs. spoken violence). But do we really want our responses to be that easily manipulated?

[TygrBright]

40. Manipulating us is their job. They're actually quite dedicated.

It is not, however, the same as being "journalists."

cynically,
Bright

[riqster]

27. So, even if this is true, it's despicable.

Terrorizing an actress, and then saying "ha ha, fooled ya" is somehow exculpatory?

Hell no, it's not.

[MerryBlooms]

38. I agree 100%. It also doesn't excuse the vile comments on 4shat. n/t

[riqster]

39. 4shat, now THAT is funny.

Stealing!

[MerryBlooms]

41. Heh, go for it.

[Xyzse]

33. So, someone wants to shut down 4chan, goes in there to create an account that would issue a threat

4chan is not monolithic.
In the end it is just another type of message board.

This is why I did not get in to 4chan's case on this one, as they have no control over what people say.
That is the point of it to begin with any how.

[jakeXT]

36. Hope Solo on naked 4Chan photo leak: 'This act goes beyond the bounds of human decency'

Hope Solo has spoken about the violation of her rights to privacy, after becoming one of the latest victims of the nude photo hacking scandal orchestrated by 4Chan.

The US Soccer star and two-time Olympic gold medallist posted a message on Facebook, following the publication of a number of intimate images, purportedly of her, online over the weekend.

"It is extremely sad and unfortunate that the rights of so many women were violated by the unauthorized release of private photographs," she wrote.

"This act goes beyond the bounds of human decency and, as such, I stand united with all the women affected and am exploring every option to protect my privacy."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/hope-solo-on-nude-4chan-photo-leak-this-act-goes-beyond-the-bounds-of-human-decency-9752763.html

[Kablooie]

47. Yes but 4chan users are just reposting pictures that were originally posted somewhere else.

The photo hackers aren't posting on 4chan or reddit.
They have their own private places they upload to.

4chan and reddit users just repost the pictures once they've been downloaded from the hacker web sites.
All this kerfuffle over 4chan and reddit is misplaced blame.

Sure it's despicable to repost private photos but the real blame resides with the hackers who have nothing to do with 4chan or reddit.

[jakeXT]

49. AnonIb is probably alot closer than 4chan

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/09/03/anonib_nude_photo_site_where_hackers_and_users_treat_women_as_property.html

[Kablooie]

54. Even AnonIb is a repost site there are still private sites where the pictures come from.

[whosinpower1]

50. Whoever came up with this

As a "marketing stunt", or a "feminist punk prank"- are pathetic antisocial pricks.

Thoroughly repulsive.

[PeteSelman]

52. 4chan is so five years ago.

The fact that it is out in the open shows it. The deep internet moved on long ago.