That 4chan Threat To Leak Emma Watson Nudes? Turns Out It Was A Viral Marketing Hoax

The other day what appeared to be a Web site called “Emma You Are Next” counting down the seconds until nude photos of Emma Watson would be released as a part of the ongoing Fappening suddenly appeared on the Internet. It was widely assumed that it was in response to Watson’s speech to the United Nations on Gender Equality. A notion that was helped along by tweets being spread by 4chan trying to get #RIPEmmaWatson trending on Twitter while sharing fake Web site pictures saying that Watson had been found dead.

As it turns out, thanks to some sleuthing by celebrity Web site The Blemish and many others, the supposed countdown Web site “Emma You Are Next” was actually created by a marketing company called Rantic hired by celebrity publicists in an effort to get 4chan shut down completely. We know this because EmmaYouAreNext.com now redirects to Rantic.com.

Here’s what EmmaYouAreNext.com looked like before…

And here’s what it looks like now…

Their message…

DEAR BARACK OBAMA,

“We have been hired by celebrity publicists to bring this disgusting issue to attention. The recent 4chan celebrity nude leaks in 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 step closer to shutting down www.4chan.org.”

Sincerely,
Rantic.com

So how was all of this discovered prior to Rantic coming clean? People way smarter than us dug into the records and found out that EmmaYouAreNext.com belonged to Rantic and put together an amazing timeline showing just how the whole marketing scheme fell into place.

First a woman with three boobs is proven to be a hoax and now this… its like you cant believe anything on the Internet anymore.

UPDATE: Now it’s being reported that Rantic Marketing isn’t even a real company. I give up.

Emma Watson image by Featureflash/Shutterstock