The rumors about Emma Watson’s nude photos were a hoax, and in the aftermath of the whole thing, two websites were hacked.
“This time, the anonymous figures appeared more organized. Shortly after the threats appeared online, someone set up a dedicated site — emmawatsonyouarenext.com — and started a countdown to the time and date that they would release the images. The countdown first pointed to this coming Saturday, before jumping forward, to 12AM ET on Wednesday the 24th of September,” writes The Verge. It added that when the time came, there were no photos. However, the website pointed back to the website of Rantic. The Verge said, “Its black background bearing a crossed-out version of 4chan’s four-leaf clover logo, and the hashtag #shutdown4chan written in large white letters.”
In the aftermath of the whole thing, Rantic and Fox Weekly--an entertainment website--were both hacked.
On Fox Weekly, crude images and memes were plastered all over the place, replacing actual articles. “Hacked by Le 9GAG Army, in association with reddit.com/r/Anonymous and Ebaumsworld.com,” said Rantic’s site after the hack.
Fox Weekly’s website has been reverted back to normal, but Rantic’s site was still defaced--about two days after it was hacked--as of Saturday night.
Before the breach, Rantic’s site used to say, “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.”
As a result of the “shut down 4chan” message, it apparently prompted 4chan’s wrath. On Twitter, there were rumors that members of 4chan went after Rantic and Fox Weekly.
