--- title: Emma Watson Nudes Threat Turns Out to Be a PR Hoax description: Orchestrated by a group claiming to be celebrity publicists who say they want to shut down 4Chan canonical: https://time.com/3425528/threat-to-expose-emma-watsons-nude-pictures-turned-out-to-be-pr-hoax/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-24T15:14:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:03.087Z og:title: Emma Watson Nudes Threat Turns Out to Be a PR Hoax og:description: Orchestrated by a group claiming to be celebrity publicists who say they want to shut down 4Chan og:url: https://time.com/3425528/threat-to-expose-emma-watsons-nude-pictures-turned-out-to-be-pr-hoax/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt300a9f0c917b940c/6986a512169ab0137127b5c8/455825058.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: UN Women's "HeForShe" VIP After Party og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Emma Watson Nudes Threat Turns Out to Be a PR Hoax twitter:description: Orchestrated by a group claiming to be celebrity publicists who say they want to shut down 4Chan twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt300a9f0c917b940c/6986a512169ab0137127b5c8/455825058.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Threat to Expose Emma Watson's Nude Pictures Turned Out to Be PR Hoax > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Sep 24, 2014 3:14 PM UTC  Actress Emma Watson attends the UN Women's "HeForShe" VIP After Party at The Peninsula Hotel on September 20, 2014 in New York City. ( Jim Spellman/WireImage) Actress Emma Watson attends the UN Women's "HeForShe" VIP After Party at The Peninsula Hotel on September 20, 2014 in New York City. ( Jim Spellman/WireImage) Jim Spellman—WireImage  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Sep 24, 2014 3:14 PM UTC The threatened release of compromising photos of actress Emma Watson turned out to a hoax Wednesday, when it became clear that the website featuring a “countdown” to the big reveal was staged by a group that calls itself a P.R. firm and says they’re hoping to shut down the shadowy internet platform 4chan, which has been blamed for posting hacked private photos of celebrities in the past. The group which calls itself “Rantic” claims they staged the fake countdown as a stunt to protest 4chan, and posted an open letter to Barack Obama asking him to crack down on the site. “We have been hired by celebrity publicists to bring this disgusting issue to attention,” the letter [reads. ](http://www.rantic.com/#about) “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 [http://www.4chan.org.”](http://www.4chan.org.”); No celebrities have come forward to say that they’re working with Rantic, nor does the group have a publicly listed phone number or a working email. Multiple [news](http://time.com/3421898/emma-watson-4chan-feminist-un-speech/) [outlets ](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/23/4chan-users-threatening-to-expose-supposed-emma-watson-private-photos-after-she-gives-feminist-speech/)reported on Monday that 4chan was threatening to release the nude photos of Watson, who made her debut on Saturday as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations, while others argued that the [whole thing ](http://www.businessinsider.com/4chan-hackers-threatening-to-post-naked-photographs-of-emma-watson-2014-9)was a 4chan hoax. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3425528/threat-to-expose-emma-watsons-nude-pictures-turned-out-to-be-pr-hoax/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3425528/threat-to-expose-emma-watsons-nude-pictures-turned-out-to-be-pr-hoax/"},"headline":"Threat to Expose Emma Watson's Nude Pictures Turned Out to Be PR Hoax","datePublished":"2014-09-24T15:14:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:03.087Z","description":"Orchestrated by a group claiming to be celebrity publicists who say they want to shut down 4Chan","url":"https://time.com/3425528/threat-to-expose-emma-watsons-nude-pictures-turned-out-to-be-pr-hoax/","keywords":["Living","celebrities","Emma Watson","hoax","pr"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt300a9f0c917b940c/6986a512169ab0137127b5c8/455825058.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt300a9f0c917b940c/6986a512169ab0137127b5c8/455825058.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"UN Women's \"HeForShe\" VIP After Party","caption":"UN Women's \"HeForShe\" VIP After Party","creditText":"Jim Spellman—WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3425528/threat-to-expose-emma-watsons-nude-pictures-turned-out-to-be-pr-hoax/","name":"Threat to Expose Emma Watson's Nude Pictures Turned Out to Be PR Hoax"}}]}] ```