Emma Watson 4chan Nude Photo Threat Revealed To Be A Hoax By Rantic Marketing

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. “We have been hired by celebrity publicists to bring this disgusting issue to attention,” reads the site’s petition to the White House. “The recent 4chan celebrity nude leaks in the past 2 months have been an invasion of privacy and is also clear indication that the internet NEEDS to be censored.”

Watson has yet to address the rumored leak or the subsequent hoax reveal. Following her speech at the U.N. Saturday, the actress has only touted only her HeForShe campaign on social media.