News Digest

Web trolls ‘threaten’ Emma Watson with nude photo leak after UN speech

Emma Watson has been threatened by internet trolls on the same site which hosted naked celebrity photos, just days after she addressed the United Nations on gender equality. A web page entitled Emma You Are Next, featuring an image of her next to a countdown, appeared to have been created by a user of image-sharing website 4chan. Private images of Jennifer Lawrence and model Kate Upton were posted on the site last month. Watson, Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women, launched the HeForShe campaign in a speech in which she appealed to men to speak out for equality.

I started questioning gender-based assumptions a long time ago. When I was eight I was confused about being called bossy because I wanted to direct plays we put on for our parents, but the boys were not.

Emma Watson, speaking to the UN

The 4chan web page, which also carries the words “never forget, the biggest to come thus far”, sparked debate on Twitter and Tumblr. The timer was set to end at midnight Friday. After the first set of hacked images were posted on the internet at the beginning of September, Watson said on Twitter: “Even worse than seeing women’s privacy violated on social media is reading the accompanying comments that show such a lack of empathy.” And in her UN speech, Watson , 24, said she wanted to challenge gender stereotypes after she felt she had been “sexualised” in the media at just 14.

When I was 14 I started to be sexualised by certain elements of the media. When I was 15 my girl friends started dropping out of their beloved sports teams because they did not want to appear ‘muscly’.

Emma Watson