back to article 4chan outraged by Emma Watson nudie photo leak SCAM

The Emma Watson nude photo leak scandal has been exposed as a spoof - by a gang of spoofers. A mysterious "marketing firm" calling itself Rantic has been fingered as the architect of a fake threat to leak nude images of the Harry Potter starlet. The internet was set alight this week by rumours that 4chan nutjobs were planning …

  1. Rich 11 Silver badge

    in which she asked men to bow down to feminism.

    Careful. Your bias is showing.

    1. Rich 11 Silver badge

      Thanks for amending it to say 'to embrace feminism', Jasper.

      1. earl grey
        Coat

        at least it wasn't "bend over"

        getting my coat

  2. Caustic Soda

    I can't see Rantic getting very far with this attempt to shut 4chan. Bet they can't even Triforce.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      4chan already signed it's death certificate over the mass censoring over GamerGate and GameJournoPros (and if anyone believes the media's line about those after reading *this* article, idk what to say). Rantic didn't need to do anything.

      1. Donkey Molestor X

        That wasn't censorship. That was ratelimiting! Half the threads in half the boards don't need to be about GamerGate. If somebody barges into your room and hollers GAMERGATE GAMERGATE OMG 15,000 times an hour and you eject him from your room for being annoying I wouldn't call that censorship either.

        1. Pypes

          @ Donkey Molester

          The shit only kicked off on all boards after mods started mass deletion / banning with no explanation, prior to that it was just multiple threads on /v/ & /pol/. They could have made a sticky thread a month ago to "contain" the GG posting.

          The shit storm lasted until moot final broke cover to admit he'd decided to fuck people over in favor of his new venture capital friends.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        It's possible, there's a viable alternative in 8chan (.co) if the "poolesclosed" people are in any way successful.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          I've seen the 8chan, it's interesting and there's no reason not to have more boards out there (even thousands, as seems to be the case). But like the Donkey person above said, the "censorship" on 4chan was multiple threads on the same topics, and a lot of spacetime wasted on /v/, which spilled onto /pol/. That pastebin chat log floating around 8chan the other day looked fake too.

        2. Vector

          pointless

          Yet another fine example of ignorance. Go ahead, shut down 4chan. All you'll accomplish is the mass movement of it's participants to the next vogue black forum.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      ▲▲

      amidoingitright.jpg

  3. Tom 7

    Why is it called the flappening?

    NT

    1. lotus49

      Re: Why is it called the flappening?

      You cannot read.

      It's "fappening" not "flappening". You should look up fap on the Urban Dictionary.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Trollface

        Re: Why is it called the flappening?

        But there is no shlickening?

        Not enough feminism, I say!

      2. Bloakey1

        Re: Why is it called the flappening?

        "You cannot read.

        It's "fappening" not "flappening". You should look up fap on the Urban Dictionary."

        There is reading and then there is textual exegesis, you read well sir.

        Any mention of flaps would be a sexist disgusting thing to say and the author ought to take no clitical <sic> acclaim for "wot" he wrote.

        Hmmm, and you dear chap should watch more carry on films.

  4. Khaptain Silver badge

    Thrown the book at them

    And bring back pubic hanging, scribbling and thirding and all the other sorts of terrible things. Or alternatively force them to use Windows 8 with an imprecise low battery bluetooth mouse. Make them eat English breakfasts 3 times a day whilst drinking cold Italien ristrettos.

    Publicity stunts can be fun whilst retaining a sense of humour but this one went just a little too far. (and now they are trying desperately to wriggle out of their shitty situation).

    I wonder if 4chan will also sue them. ( I presume that dear Emma's lawyers are already writing up the initial draft)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Thrown the book at them

      They made a public threat over the internet. That's more than a "little". It's a federal crime.

      1. Tom 13

        Re: They made a public threat over the internet.

        As far as I can tell, that makes the difference between them and 4chan the fact that you can identify them.

        Pot, kettle; goose, gander.

        1. Khaptain Silver badge

          Re: They made a public threat over the internet.

          @AC They made a public threat over the internet.

          Calm down dear, Yes, they did, but we are not talking "murder" here, they threated to publish a "presumed" nude selfie, which we don't even know exists... not quite the end of the world...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Thrown the book at them

      "pubic hanging"?

      That seems a particularly nasty punishment.

      1. Khaptain Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: Thrown the book at them

        >"pubic hanging"? That seems a particularly nasty punishment.

        And quite appropriate considering the heinous nature of the crime..... see comment above

    3. Richard 81

      Re: Thrown the book at them

      "Make them eat English breakfasts 3 times a day"

      I thought you wanted to punish them.

      1. Captain DaFt

        Re: Thrown the book at them

        Though delicious, the extra weight of an eaten English breakfast would add to the agony of a 'pubic hanging'.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Thrown the book at them

      I stopped reading at cold ristrettos. Not even mass murderers deserve that. You monster.

  5. Billa Bong

    Just for my own piece of mind...

    I assume that someone checked Rantic (autocorrect wants me to put Rancid...) didn't actually seize the domain in question, i.e. that they were always the host of the original site? If they didn't, that's a pretty poor effort to raise publicity and I expect them to have the sort of publicity that they really don't want in the near future...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Just for my own piece of mind...

      Make of this what you will.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Just for my own piece of mind...

        I wonder if 4chan will go after them for copyright infringement (their logo)... And Emma could for defamation of character.

        Not that I'd like to see a bunch of search engine poisoning blatant liars bankrupt of course...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          4Chan copyright infrigement

          4chan don't sue, they generally have people taking the law into their own hands and dispensing their own justice if they get pissed off enough and the 'tards assemble.... generally starting with pwned website, then pwned every other domain that company uses, then moves off to extreme pr0n subscription, midnight pizza deliveries, then dead animal slung over the roofs of the company owners houses, as Anon never forgives and never forgets. Then they promptly forget and go raid somthing else :p

      2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Holmes

        Re: Just for my own piece of mind...

        So Emma Watson is just collateral damage in .... a marketroid campaign performed by people who can't into securing the Apache webserver status page?

        We are reaching "CoS pulling a Xenu" levels of QUALITY here.

      3. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: Just for my own piece of mind...

        @Mycho for letting us see what all the fuss was about. I'm reminded of wontsomebodythinkofthechildren.com

        Much ado about nothing. Let them pretend to have naked pictures of the woman and let's watch the internet dissolve in nowtrage. Maybe we need a new word for it? Suggestions please. I'll get the ball rolling with "nowtnet"

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Or Maybe...

        Emma Watson hired them to get her discussion on feminism better placement in the news. You can never be too sure with things like this. : P

  6. Hasham

    Shit

    Was looking forward to those

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Shit

      Joke, I presume?

    2. DropBear

      Re: Shit

      I'm sorry - You're reading El Reg and you can't MAKE some with Photoshop if you really want to? Surely, you jest...

  7. logistix

    Seen all the pics already, blah blah. They aren't that good. There is plenty of way better stuff out there in 1080p to "fap" to. Just goes to show that "celebrities" or whatever the definition of that may be more "friends" or more "money" than you might have they are still ugly just like the rest of the people when they don't have their makeup on. Tired of it all? Quit your factory job canning tuna fish or mopping the floor and simply go to a few auditions. But yeah, if you got some credit card numbers or something from their iCloud then maybe.....

    1. logistix

      Did I just get thumbed down by a janitor? LMFAO!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        ...and did he do it for free?

      2. logistix

        fucking losers unhappy with your lives. get into I.T. or something...

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      @logistix looks like a lot of very uptight people around today. I haven't seen any of the latest pictures but I'm not going to be so prudish as to say I wouldn't look, be unsurprised at how unspectacular they are and move on. I do remember the Paris Hilton grumble flick. Now that was funny!

      In terms of being nasty to the people involved - yep, don't agree with it – but the tabloids are often a lot crueller. As you point out there are a few lessons for us all to learn about who we trust and with what.

  8. sisk

    The mainstream media have allowed themselves to be used in a viral marketing scheme

    The mainstream media have allowed themselves to be used for far worse things than that. Political pawns, for instance.

  9. Ktsecful

    How can they conclusively say it's not 4chan doing it when it consists of thousands of anonymous accounts, who is their mouthpiece that gets to categorically state they're not doing anything?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They can't.

      Next question, how can they conclusively say it's not Jeremy Clarkson?

    2. teebie

      Because 4chan consists of thousands of anonymous accounts and so can't be said to be taking a collective stand on a particular action just because one person posted something to the board.

      If Dave Fictionalman posts to 4chan that he's going to streak at the Brit Awards, then Dave Fictionalman did it, 4chan didn't, and if he goes for a pasty later there should be headlines saying "Greggs threaten Brit Awards with streaking"

  10. i like crisps
    Trollface

    Vinegar Tits.....

    ....that is all.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: Vinegar Tits.....

      gb2 /b/, *****

  11. hi_robb

    Well.

    If you're waiting for some hacking group to release naked pics of Emma Watson, you're obviously a wanker.

    D

  12. Dylbot

    Never mind the fact that even if anyone on 4chan had the ability to do something like this, getting them to agree on any one issue for long enough to carry out a co-ordinated attack on anything without devolving into a sea of reaction images and ad hominem would be akin to herding the world's largest cattery. It's like mainstream tabloid journalism doesn't even bother to investigate sources or something!

    1. Vociferous

      The 4chan commentariat are Anonymous.

      So basically you're right.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Things have spun out of the 4chan ether... Katawa Shoujo, LulzSec, various translations, some pretty unified responses to GamerGate, probably more.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The EmmaYouAreNext.com URL now redirects to rantic.com; where it's explained that it was a publicity stunt with the aim of shutting down 4chan and also an open letter to the POTUS saying:

      "" We have been hired by celebrity publicists to bring this disgusting issue to attention. 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. Every Facebook like, share & Twitter mention will count as a social signature -- and will be one step closer to shutting down www.4chan.org. "

      Sincerely,

      Rantic.com

      If anything will get 4chan to agree on a single issue; then that's probably it. I reposted it so that rantic didn't get the clicks and to save a little effort.

  13. Matt Bryant Silver badge
    WTF?

    From the 4chan /tinfoilhat/ channel

    "....probably NSA or something...." LOL, paranoia and ego all in one dumb package.

    1. Fibbles
      Black Helicopters

      Re: From the 4chan /tinfoilhat/ channel

      NSA is pretty far fetched. The FBI is at least plausible though.

      > Set up website incriminating 4chan

      > Reveal site as hoax and call for 4chan to be banned

      > Await DDOS from angry b-tards

      > Arrest DDOSers

      > Make claims to the mainstream media about 'cracking down on those nasty guys at 4chan who leaked all those nude celebrity selfies'

      > Enjoy PR coup

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just ONCE she could have thrown in the word "Egalitarianism"

    The Word Feminist can never mean Egality unless you're a Fox Viewer

    or under thirty (yeah I went there).

    Time for anyone who's serious (not a one, they're all getting their 15 minutes)

    it's time for a change. Meanwhile real people will continue to suffer as hollywood

    and our politicians dine on the proceeds of their weak and empty words.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      I don't like radical Egalitarians.

      They just want a world where eagles are in charge and can oppress non-eagles in exactly the same way

  15. jesterscup

    I had expected better

    Well congratulations commentards.

    I had expected more of you, but it seems we've just as many ignorant biased individuals who would rather be told what to think by others than think something through themselves. Sure they'd be some, but no it seems to be about the same ratio.

    So I say this:

    Firstly there are issues, lots of them:

    There are areas where men are discriminated against, and serious ones. The UK has one publicly available resource that deals with male victims of sexual abuse, and its funded by a charity. despite the fact that an estimated 15% of men will have to go through this at some point in their lives. there is nothing ( that I'm aware of ) for men who suffer domestic abuse ( 10% - again estimated - but these are published figures ).

    Women still earn less than men, are still less likely to be in positions at the top of the 'career chain'. over 80% of women respondents stated they received verbal sexual abuse on a daily basis.

    Actually from my point of view a lot (not all) of these issues are, and should be, looked at as social issues, and not gender issues.

    But screaming about how the other 'side' is wrong/bad/stupid ? nope that just stops people from listening to you.

    Sure you can be a troll, but no-one sensible is going to listen to you. Accept your bias, announce it, and then join in the debate, and listen. Perhaps then we'll get somewhere.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Bloakey1
      Happy

      Re: I had expected better

      I did as well until I found out my wife was a cook in bed and a whore in the kitchen.

      Now I do all the cooking and cleaning and it all works out very well.

    3. PatientOne

      Re: I had expected better

      "Women still earn less than men"

      If this is the 77c in the $ argument*, then you really need to read the entire report - it explains why this isn't evidence of inequality in pay. Women earn less than men over their career. This is not the same as there being discrimination in pay.

      Here's why:

      A man earns $400 a week. A woman doing the same job at the same company earns $350 a week. This is inequality, yes? This is what the numbers suggest, surely.

      Except: The man works 40hr a week, the woman earns 35hr a week - they are both paid at the same rate: $10 an hour. Where is the discrimination? Where is the inequality? As long as both can work 40 hours if they want or 35 hours, and they are paid the same rate, there is no discrimination. Yet they are paid different ammounts because one choses to work 40 hours, the other works 35 hours.

      This is why the 77c in 1$ is misleading: Total pay, not hourly rate. And that's not even going near the issue of differences in employers, benefits in kind and the favourite: Salary Sacrifice schemes!

      Study into hourly rates, strangely, indicate there is very little in the way of pay gaps, with women potentially earning $1.02 per 1$ a man earns, on hourly rates (this mostly comes from part time work, though).

      As to career prospects...

      Edwina Curry put this very well: If you set targets for appointing women to post then you will not get the best person for that job**.

      A translation of this is simply: If you appoint a woman to post who was not the best candidate then she will not be as good as her peers. When it comes to promotions, she will logically lag behind as she isn't the best candidate, and may never be so. This will haunt her through her career as she will always be behind others, who were appointed based on their merits, not their gender.

      And industry has been under pressure to appoint more women into 'male dominate' roles: A PR stunt that doesn't do anyone any good.

      *I have stuck to using $ as the report most quoted in the apparent pay gap arguments is a US report by the treasury and so is in $'s.

      **clarification: This refers to appointing a candidate due to gender rather than merit. This is not to say a woman can't be the best candidate.

  16. Mystic Megabyte
    Mushroom

    "You're next"

    That last person who said that to me got pulled to the floor and hammered. Blood was spilled. but it was not mine. Emma, go sue those sad bastards!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "You're next"

      I go into a threat, not run away from it - I call it the moment it's stated. The first couple of times that gets rough, but then you get a reputation that threatening you comes at a cost, and the number of object lessons you have to provide decreases.

      You can't win them all - but even losing is good if it costs the other party a lot more than they originally planned to invest.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "You're next"

        Did you really post that under AC?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "You're next"

          Did you really post that under AC?

          Yup. Rule 1 is avoiding needless battles in the first place. The best fight is the one you don't have, and painting a target on your chest is not the most intelligent approach to an easy life ;-)

  17. Yugguy
    Unhappy

    All I'm getting from this is

    That there aren't any naked pictures.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Use your imagination.

      The pictures are better.

      1. Bloakey1

        Re: Use your imagination.

        "The pictures are better."

        True and the sheep do not bite either.

  18. Vociferous

    It's difficult to imagine that there is something 4chan is innocent of.

    As title.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Saying they have "respect" for her

    In the sentence saying they'd fap to nude pictures of her...

    I think they need a new dictionary with a more accurate definition of the word "respect".

    1. veti Silver badge

      Re: Saying they have "respect" for her

      "Respect" takes many forms. It's not necessarily incompatible with lust, and certainly not with fantasy. Once you add the word "objectification" in there it becomes harder to justify, but still the first definition of "respect" I get from Google is:

      "a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements."

      - which doesn't automatically rule it out.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Saying they have "respect" for her

        Lust is fine, but part of respect is not telling a stranger you lust after her so much you think about her when masturbating. Just like you shouldn't tell an ugly person they're ugly or a fat person they're fat.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Saying they have "respect" for her

          Sad that I'm seeing so many downvotes for stating something so reasonable. Must be more basement dwelling Reg readers who don't speak to any women aside from their mother than I thought!

  20. Dave Bell

    It looks as though there were multiple layers of Hoax here. Does Rantic really exist? Apparently not. And how do you prove any name on the internet is real?

    Oh, it's on one of those business-name websites, is it? Most of those sites don't check the data they show you, and don't update, and only care about the fees from ever more dodgy advertisers. Where I am able to check, most of the businesses are a couple of years dead.

    If it exists on the Internet, there is porn of it. That's something I get told often enough. It's as easy to believe that if it exists on the Internet it is a lie intended to sell advertising.

    (Incidentally, I don't feel any urge to view naked selfies of Emma Watson. I know she isn't Hermione Granger, but I feel as though I have watched her grow up. And if 4chan were taking on Hermione. I would pay for tickets. It'd be better than Quidditch.)

    1. 404

      That would be Rule 34.

      Don't have a dog in the race - just amused by the whole 'celebrity' episode. Security? What's that?

    2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Does Rantic really exist?

      There's some evidence on the Wikipedia discussion page for the deletion of the (now deleted) FoxWeekly page to support the theory that Rantic / FoxWeekly is a single person. That seems entirely plausible.

  21. John Tserkezis

    "We have been hired by celebrity publicists to bring this disgusting issue to attention," "Rantic" wrote.

    Right. Because public relations firms have never done anything disgusting before...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I love the implication that they were hired by celebrity publicists to bring attention to the disgusting issue of leaking naked photos, by threatening to leak naked photos.

      Unless one of the celebrities these publicists purportedly represent is Emma Watson, I'd say that's pretty much the dumbest way to go about solving that job.

  22. ecofeco Silver badge

    Oh, just another publicity stunt?

    I want that 5 minutes of my life back.

  23. shovelDriver

    Socialist Methods

    "Every Facebook like, share & Twitter mention will count as a social signature -- and will be one step closer to shutting down . . ."

    "Social signatures" are the equivalent of a country - any country's - registered legal voters and are sufficient to overturn constitutions, Magna Carta's, prior restraint laws, laws against theft of property and services, laws against presumption of guilt without proof, and the like.

    Who knew governments would act in such a manner? Other than the United States, that is . . .

  24. Efros

    Rantic

    Seems that Rantic have been rogered, so to speak. Their site, complete with dancing and naked bananas, is sporting this legend "Hacked by Le 9GAG Army, in association with reddit.com/r/Anonymous and Ebaumsworld.com"..

  25. RISC OS

    Now they are hacked!!!

    http://www.rantic.com/

    lol

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