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[Mizhara]

ABC article.

[spoiler]

A threat against actress Emma Watson in response to a gender equality speech she made at the United Nations now appears to have been a viral marketing stunt.

The Harry Potter star and UN women's ambassador delivered an impassioned speech at the launch of the UN's HeForShe campaign, which calls for men to support women in striving for gender equality.
External Link: Shane L tweets in response to #shutdown4chan

Users of the online community 4chan, which previously leaked private nude photos of female celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton, created a thread linking to a webpage called "EmmaYouAreNext.com".

The page showed a photo of Watson with a clock which was assumed to be counting down to the time nude photos of her would be posted.

Social media users rallied behind Watson in condemning the threats and blaming 4chan users for the website.

But it now appears to have been a marketing stunt by an organisation called Rantic, which aims to shut down 4chan.

The redirected page now shows a message to US president Barack Obama and calls on people to support the calls to shut down the site.

"We have been hired by celebrity publicists to bring this disgusting issue to attention," the statement said.

"The recent 4chan celebrity nude leaks in past 2 months have been an invasion of privacy and is also clear indication that the internet need to be censored."

The #shutdown4chan hashtag gained some momentum on Twitter, but some users raised concerns that it aimed to eclipse conversation about Watson's gender equality speech.

Watson's speech, made in New York on Saturday, spoke of the importance of gender equality for both men and women.

    Men, I would like to give this opportunity to extend your formal invitation.

    Gender equality is your issue, too.

    To date, I've seen my father's role as a parent being valued less by society.

    I've seen young men suffering from illness, unable to ask for help for fear it will make them less of a man.

    I've seen men fragile and insecure by what constitutes male success.

    Men don't have the benefits of equality, either.

    ...

    I want men to take up this mantle so their daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice but also so their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human, too and in doing so, be a more true and complete version of themselves.

Watson has not yet responded publicly to the news that the threats were a hoax.

[/spoiler]

Is this really an acceptable way of "calling attention" to something?
There are speculations that Rantic Media may actually be a 4chan thing too, which says some fairly scary things about how easily the media itself is made to parrot falsehoods, but there's no confirmation of that yet.

[Silas Vitalia]

Someone did something stupid on 4chan?

[Mizhara]

Well, the official story right now is that someone did something stupid to blame on 4chan, but we'll see I guess.

[orange]

There are potentially more sinister motives behind false threats.

/puts on tinfoil hat/

The recent 4chan celebrity nude leaks in past 2 months have been an invasion of privacy and is also clear indication that the internet need to be censored.

This to me indicates a desire for something more than pursuing the criminal theft  and distribution of intellectual property without the permission of the property owner (photos are owned by the photographer).

Convincing the American public that censorship is needed maybe the intended goal.

/removes tinfoil hat/

[Mizhara]

Well, while it is a bit :tinfoilhat: it's not entirely unreasonable to consider it. We've been seeing way too many attempts at gaining a frightening level of control over the internet the last decade with next to no oversight in the name of everything from "dem terrists!" to protection of intellectual property.

The more I read the news, the more I start getting flashes of everything from Mirror's Edge to Shadowrun. Although, dragons would be farkin' ossum.

[Shiori]

http://www.rantic.com/

"Brad Cockingham (Founder & CEO)"

(Edit: one hopes that if the Illuminati is on some kind of mass memetic engineering campaign, they'd do us the kindness of at least not making it look like some joke someone threw together over a lazy Sunday afternoon.)

[Silas Vitalia]

4chan would be a weak vector to do anything, as most citizens don't even know what it is.

[Lyn Farel]

Their motives are not to draw attention on something, or rather it's not their final purpose. They might be stirring shit as they seem to originate from a group (SocialVevo) specialized in generating buzz and clicks on social networks, as well as brokering of likes and followers on the same social networks.

The fine art to turn hot debates into money.


@ Silas : 4chan seems to be gaining a lot of notoriety recently, I have seen it for the first times mentioned several times in public news outlets.

[Jace]

4chan would be a weak vector to do anything, as most citizens don't even know what it is.

This. As usual, it will return to being nothing but an internet punchline very soon, just like /b/.

[Havohej]

Well, the official story right now is that someone did something stupid to blame on 4chan, but we'll see I guess.

This, really.  I'm on that imageboard frequently.  4chan doesn't "do" anything.  But it does make a convenient scapegoat.

EDIT: Also, to say "4chan celebrity nude leaks" implies some sort of super secret coordinated organized effort to hack all these celebs' iphone cloud accounts.  Like the site was literally "behind" it.  Some guy hacks icloud, finds gold, posts it on the internet... nothing more to it than that.

Jennifer Lawrence is as hot as I thought she'd be, though.

The thing to remember here is that these are young women doing things that young women do.  They're not special unique paragons of fucking preteen girl rolemodel virtue.  They're twentysomethings who drink and sext with hot twentysomething boys.  There's an inordinate amount of interest in this because they're rich and famous.  They're damn near fetishized because of their status as celebrities.  Which is retarded.  But if they weren't leaked on 4chan first, it would've been reddit.  Then most of you still wouldn't know what 4chan is.

>implying most of you suddenly know what 4chan is
kek

[Jace]

The fact that they are celebrities doesn't make it any less of a violation.

[Havohej]

The fact that they are celebrities doesn't make it any less of a violation.

Right... because I said it did?

Fact is I have zero sympathy for them.  They took these pictures for their paramours.  Their paramours could just as well have leaked them as soon as the relationship goes south.  Most of them probably would have.  These aren't the first famous titties we've seen, Jace.  With notable exceptions like Kim Kardashian or Madonna who release their own for publicity and attention, how many of them were exposed by hackers?  Now how many were sold to tabloids by jilted ex-boyfriends?  I don't have the numbers because I can't be arsed, but the ratio leans far in favor of butthurt exes than leet hax0rz.

EDIT: Which is to say, it's their own fault.  They took a risk when they took the pictures and transmitted them electronically.  There are nudes of me on the interwebs, but you know what?  None of them have my face in them.  Now I'm not famous, so I'm not a target for hackers to wanna expose the junk in my trunk, but any one of these women could've taken that very simple precaution.

And don't get me started on poor McKayla Maroney and her underage nudes that she took of herself for a boy.  The fact that she's not up on child pornography charges is bullshit.

[Jace]

I'm not making any claims about 4chan. As I said in my earlier post, it will go back to being an internet punchline just like /b/.

The difference between someone grabbing it from a cloud or phone is that it is stolen, rather than something you were intentionally given. There is a big difference there. Are the boyfriends assholes for spreading something they were given? Yes. But someone who steals this sort of photo and disseminates it should be charged with a sex crime in my opinion. To say it is the woman's fault is the same mentality that blames rape victims, in my opinion.

But we are far enough apart on this a further discussion will not be productive.

[Havohej]

And the jilted ex shouldn't?  Is such a person not also spreading these images against the will of the woman in question?

Copypasta from 4chan:

Nudes Leak pasta

You're all literally rapists.

You're violating these women by viewing and sharing their private photos without their consent. A big part of what defines the act of rape is the lack of consent and there is clearly a lack of consent here. The images are even more appealing to you because there is an aspect of "forbidden fruit" due to the nature of the nude photographs being stole and originating from celebrities, which basically means that you're being aroused because their non-consent turns you on. This is a form of sexual assault. You don't see it as such because you have been blinded by rape culture.

If I were to punch you in the face, you'd be in pain. If I were to shoot you in the torso, you'd be in more pain. Both actions cause you pain, but one more than the other; the lesser act of assault is not negated simply because you could be a victim of a greater act of assault. Likewise, the act of sharing and viewing these nude photographs is still a violation of these victims/women regardless of whether greater forms of sexual assault exist. If you sick individuals have a conscience, you will cease viewing and sharing these stolen photos because you are currently no different than a common rapist.

Source: Ph.D in clinical psychology.

Furthermore, I am aware of the fact that legislation is now being pursued to make the act of stealing and sharing nude photographs without the consent of the other party a punishable sexual assault crime that can either be a felony or misdemeanor depending on the severity of the crime. I'd be careful if I were you, future law breakers.

Nudes Leak pasta 2

STOP. STOP NOW.

These celebs didn't have their photos "leaked". Nice play there, dickheads, but the correct word is "stolen and disseminated".

It's bad enough for these girls that their private lives were ripped from their grasp and put on display for the world to see. Now they have to deal with their body parts being judged by ruthless neckbreads who hide behind the veil of anonymity like complete pussies. How do you think they feel about this? It's a violation of their bodies. It is RAPE. Every time you look at these images, you are RAPING the women who they belong to.

STOP. STOP IT. Let us commence...

You imply, Jace, that it's somehow less wrong for a lover given these materials freely by the victim to do what this hacker did in spreading these nudes about for all to see.  I argue that it's just as wrong, if not moreso, because of the explicit and implicit trusts violated by the jilted lover.  They commit the same wrong, and so are equally guilty, but one is personal - making it worse.

And unlike with an actual rape, where a person is 100% non-consenting to the violation of their body, these photo leaks are quite the victim's own fault for consenting to and participating in the production of the materials to begin with.  Even an actress sunbathing topless on some French nude beach photographed without her knowledge or consent put herself on public display knowing the risk of paparazzi exists.  She could very well have sunned herself on a private estate with high walls, or on the roof of her malibu mansion or the like rather than put her boobs in display for thousands of people in a public venue and then cry foul about TMZ airing or SUN Magazine printing censored images while the uncensored images wind up littered across the web.

They don't care when they're doing it to begin with, so I don't care when they're all mad about it biting them in the ass.

[Jace]

Your comparison is absurd. One is a public beach. The other was a private cloud account. Nothing alike. But again, we are too far apart for this to go anywhere. This very discussion has been had an absurd amount of times on the internet since the whole ordeal started and it never ends. Suffice to say, if the authorities were ever able to track down the person who initially stole the images and spread them (which I know they will not), I think that person should henceforth be a registered sex offender.