Am I the only one who thinks if 4chan had Emma Watson nudes, they would have been leaked months ago. These are masturbatory teens.
— John Cole (@Johngcole) September 24, 2014
These guys are jackasses:
The nude photo leak threat targeting Emma Watson earlier this week turned out to be a viral marketing stunt by Rantic Marketing to shut down the website 4chan.
The website surrounding the false leaks, EmmaYouAreNext.com, threatened to release nude photographs of the 24-year-old actress and included a clock counting down to Saturday at midnight ET. The person who posted the website said it was in retaliation for Watson’s well-received speech that she gave at the United Nations on Sept. 20.
However, by midnight on Wednesday, the URL redirected to Rantic Marketing’s website. Watson’s face and the countdown clock has been replaced with a banner that says, “#shutdown4chan” and an open letter to President Barack Obama that claims celebrity publicists hired the marketing company to popularize a call for Internet censorship and the end of 4chan.
Even a blind squirrel…
*** Update ***
It gets even weirder. This was all an elaborate rickroll.
Napoleon
So, I have not heard anything about this story until now. I take it then the Rantic Marketing people are another group of unhinged wingers then?
Belafon
And how do they think the US would shut down 4chan? There is this thing called the first amendment. They can go after the people who stole the original photos, but the US president isn’t going to be able to do a lot.
deep trousers
Rantic Marketing is a hoax too.
Its CEO is named “Brad Cockingham”
Yeah.
HOAXCEPTION!
big ole hound
These internet peckerwoods have no impact anywhere if they are ignored by the sane members of the general public.
FridayNext
@Belafon:
Which assumes that 4chan is even under American jurisdiction. Is it? I don’t know. It seems to me it is probably global with multiple redundancies in multiple countries.
Speaking of redundancies, “masturbatory teens”?
Are there other kinds?
Comrade Dread
When it comes to politics and the Internet, I honestly can no longer tell parodies and hoaxes from real stories any more.
Burnspbesq
4chan is also responsible for the “you can charge your iPhone 6 in the microwave” hoax, which an unknown but non-trivial number of people fell for. Low-grade sociopaths with a junior-high sense of humor. Fuck ’em.
Belafon
@Burnspbesq: In other words, where the next American CEO’s will come from.
Jamie McCarthy
John, don’t trust Mashable. They’re completely, 100% wrong on this.
The rantic.com domain was never a marketing firm, it was some MySpace band until the domain was “Hacked by 4chan” earlier this year. Mashable and Brian Coerber were stupid to trust what they saw on this rantic.com domain and they’re going to issue one hell of a retraction pretty soon.
http://web.archive.org/web/20140829093907/http://www.rantic.com/
Mike
@FridayNext:
4chan servers in CA since 2008, just a google search away, info on 4chan.org…
http://www.4chan.org/news?all#106
MattF
@Burnspbesq: According to YouTube, you can charge your iPhone with a watermelon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDgjvZh5O1w
Vlad
@deep trousers: I guess Dr. James Russell was too busy to assume the position.
gbear
The only thing that even comes to mind when I see ‘4chan’ is the quadraphonic revolution that we were supposed to have gone through in mid 70’s. I’ve got a couple old vinyl albums that are mastered to deliver quadraphonic sound.
Sly
People genuinely keeping tabs on 4chan know that all the absolute dregs moved over to 8chan, especially after the mods started deleting “GamerGate” threads as they were becoming launch points for raids and doxxing. Or, in the words of the raiders and doxxers, after Christopher Poole (a.k.a. “m00t,” the founder of 4chan) became brainwashed by the evil feminist conspiracy.
Va Highlander
Actually, it’s even weirder than John’s update. The #shutdown4chan movement originated on…4chan. It’s retaliation for discussion of #gamergate being banned on all 4chan boards.
Grumpy Code Monkey
4chan’s a pretty diverse community; the people you’re talking about hang around the /b/ section of the site, which is a random grab bag of porn, racism, homophobia, and lulz (in roughly that order; the racism and homophobia seem to jocky for position over time).
I mean, it’s like judging the BJ commentariat on the basis of, say, MC and BOB.
I have to admit, there’s a small, not terribly pleasant part of me that found the Wave parody funny (mostly in how closely it aped Apple marketing materials). I feel a little sorry for the people who nuked their phones, but only a little.
Botsplainer
So does 4chan have a management team like reddit?
I’m assuming that, like so much other douchebaggery on the internet, such an affiliation listed on a resume would bring attention and a downpour of dollars from the douchebaggier tech venture capital community (none of whom are dying fast enough or painfully enough to suit me).
burnspbesq
@MattF:
Call me boring, but I think I’ll stick to charging mine with a cable and a power supply.
Sloegin
Are our 10 minutes of hate over?
There’s some really vile subgroups on 4chan, but that’s like saying there’s some vile subgroups on reddit, or Yahoo, or somethingawful.
Terrible people are currently being terrible someplace.
Amir Khalid
test
Amir Khalid
FYWP seems to have eated a comment of mine. I was saying I rather doubted there were ever any such pictures of her as some people on 4chan were claiming.
srv
So it turns out the losing fight against Ebola Isreal-ly Obama’s fault:
Actually very detailed article the whole insane process.
burnspbesq
@Amir Khalid:
Glad to see you survived the penalty shootout.
Villago Delenda Est
@Belafon: BINGO!
NonyNony
@Sloegin:
Hey if 4chan didn’t want to be hated they would be less hateful.
It’s what they want. They should bask in it when they find out that if you act like assholes you’ll get treated like assholes.
jeffreyw
OT, but anyone else noticing Balloon Juice breaking the Chrome browser? Firefox works fine.
Belafon
@srv: Yep, Obama wrote the whole DoD purchasing system.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Their company motto is “We’re serious business”.?
Villago Delenda Est
@Comrade Dread: Poe’s Law. It’s what’s for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight snack.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Napoleon: Not, just intertubes trolls. Picture DougJ without the education.
burnspbesq
@Belafon:
Not to mention the entire FDA new drug approval process.
Villago Delenda Est
@jeffreyw: Not breaking mine (Chrome on Win7 up to date)
different-church-lady
I have no idea why I am wasting my life attempting to do non-trivial things. It appears one can be a much more successful human being than I am simply by pulling elaborate internet pranks-within-pranks and scratching yourself.
NonyNony
The idea of this hoax actually being a hoax makes the most sense of any story so far. There’s no way that real pics were out there that hadn’t leaked. And the idea that someone would have contracted a social media marketing company to make this hoax is insane.
But the idea that some trolls are out there trolling other trolls? On the Internet, we call that “Wednesday”.
Suffern ACE
Test
srv
@Belafon: Well, he wrote Obamacare, why couldn’t he have knocked out fixing drug trials in the evenings?
Michael G
So at some point one of the bars near work turned into what can only be described as a “douchebag bar”.
I was talking to a friend about this, and he said, “yeah, isn’t it great”? When asked, he said, “It gives the douchebags somewhere to go and keeps them out of the good bars.”
So in that context, I think it’s better to keep 4chan around.
Mike
@Botsplainer:
Once again, such a question is easily answered by going to the site itself.
http://www.4chan.org/faq#administration
Suffern ACE
One more time. What did E mma W atson say in her speech to the U N that would warrant re tal iation from a m arketing f irm?
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Burnspbesq: That is so awesome. Not a huge 4chan fan but if they got even one person to do it that is awesome win, as the wacky kids say.
I think we all know who the low-grade sociopath with no sense of humor is around here, counselor.
jeffreyw
@Villago Delenda Est: I was on a win7 machine last night and noticed BJ wouldn’t load for me, wrote it off to the bizarre networking scheme to the back barn. In the basement now on an 8.1 machine, still won’t load even after all extensions were disabled.
kc
Well, duh.
Belafon
@Suffern ACE: That women should be treated as equals and with respect.
Suffern ACE
And another thing, why would “E mma W atson” be on the blacklist of naughty words? fYWP.
kc
@Jamie McCarthy:
“Mashable.” Honest to God, “Don’t trust Mashable” should go without saying.
jeffreyw
@jeffreyw: Hmm copy pasted the post URL from firefox into a new chrome tab, loaded just fine. Main page is still not loading, tho.
burnspbesq
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
And what did you say to him/her when you greeted him/her in your mirror this morning?
Amir Khalid
@Suffern ACE:
It’s on YouTube if you haven’t seen it yet. It went viral and has earned a lot of favourable coverage. But I guess there are boys out there who find it outrageous that anyone would urge them to support feminism.
Howard Beale IV
PSA: If you fly KLM and change planes at Schipol and forget something on the plane, Sherlock (beagle) will likely return it to you.
srv
@Howard Beale IV: Howard Beale works for Rantic or 4chan
h/t reddit
raven
@jeffreyw: You see the video of this dude in Pennsylvania wearing jungles at some “reenactor” gig?
http://abc13.com/news/accused-cop-killer-eric-frein-stars-in-war-reenactor-film/321040/
pseudonymous in nc
Trolling wrapped with trolling coated with trolling served with a side of trolling. And shit.
jeffreyw
@raven: I’d heard he was fond of play acting. Haven’t been following the story closely.
raven
@jeffreyw: They’ve been “closing in” on his ass for a week.
Mike in NC
@raven: Just to make their hobby more interesting, reenactors should make sure every fifth bullet they fire is a live round. Especially so if the reenactors are playing Confederates or Waffen SS.
Howard Beale IV
@srv: Actually, I saw this on The Consumerist.
Looks like lots of folks are getting rickrorolled.
Goblue72
@Michael G: That’s what you say now. But what happens when the douchebags start propagating and infecting other bars? Like they always do.
They used to call the douchebag containment zone in San Francisco “the Marina”. Now they just call it “San Francisco”.
SatanicPanic
@Suffern ACE: Is that what ate my comment? Sheesh. FYWP!
Schlemazel
@jeffreyw:
I’m on chrome & it seems OK
Villago Delenda Est
@raven: He’s to the west, south, north, and east, somewhat, of Philadelphia.
They’ll find his ass.
Chyron HR
@Amir Khalid:
Yes, it’s just those the dumb boys who hate feminism. If Ron Weasley had for some inexplicable reason addressed the UN, he would have been given the utmost respect.
Villago Delenda Est
@Chyron HR: “My life as sidekick of the Boy Who Lived….a reminiscence”
Botsplainer
@Mike:
I won’t give them clicks.
glocksman
@jeffreyw:
It breaks for me as well, and has done so for a while now despite (or because of) updating regularly.
glocksman
@Villago Delenda Est:
Nah, more like ‘How to keep an uppity witch in the kitchen where she belongs’ or ‘Weasley family fertility secrets’.
Schlemazel
@Chyron HR:
It depends. Had Ron spoken in favor of mens rights I am sure the boys at 4chan would have been just swell with it. Had he had the gall to suggest women deserved some sort of respect and/or consideration they would have been on him like shit on flies.
Schlemazel
and yes, FYWP is eating posts – in both chrome & firefox
dmsilev
@glocksman:
Speaking of the trainwreck collision between Harry Potter and conservative dogma, the jury is still out on whether this is real or a parody, but if it’s real, oh my.
Schlemazel
@Schlemazel:
Interesting, it is not eating every post, only some
Mnemosyne
@Chyron HR:
Yeah, it’s so weird and inexplicable that an official UN Goodwill Ambassador would address the UN.
(BTW, FYWP will not let you post a comment using Emma’s last name. Because FYWP.)
Suffern ACE
@Schlemazel: as I wrote above, E mma or W atson or both next to each other is triggering the eating for me. Kind of sucks on a past about her.
Mnemosyne
@Schlemazel:
FYWP doesn’t like Emma’s last name. We have the same problem whenever we try to discuss Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick.
ETA: It was eating my comments because the links had her last name in them. I had to run the link through Bit.ly to get it to work.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@jeffreyw: A while ago there was a weird problem with B-J in that it worked fine for people who were logged in, but wouldn’t load the main page for those who weren’t. Using
https://balloon-juice.com/index.html
or similar would get me in in that case. (Now that give a 404.) I think it was fixed in a few hours after letting JC know.
There’s been some weirdness of late (e.g. Elon’s double-posts, then zombie post). Someone probably needs to clean out the database or something.
Since it seems to be just you at the moment, maybe let mistermix know?
Other Chrome troubleshooting tips.
HTH a little.
Cheers,
Scott.
Suffern ACE
@Mnemosyne: so I guess we’ll just change her name to Whatson. Which is a old Scottish clan name consisting of unrecognized illegitimate children of the House of Stuart.
raven
Damn, got the word our friend who has been battling brain cancer for 2 1/2 years passed away last night. She has not been herself for almost 6 months and, if there is such a thing, she’s in a better place.
The Thin Black Duke
@raven: My condolences. I hope it was a peaceful goodbye.
raven
@The Thin Black Duke: Ah thanks, I think it was.
Woodrowfan
I’m sorry Raven.
catclub
@raven:
How long did they take to catch the Atlanta bomber? Years, right?
catclub
@Chyron HR: I thought this was reference to the LGM thread up now. Harry Potter without witches, but as a bunch of ignorant theologians. It is great!
Bobby Thomson
@dmsilev:
Having read some of the attributed stuff that fundamentalists have put out, it’s real. Ridiculous, but real.
Unsure what the cherry-picked anti-socialist verses in the Bible are supposed to be. (It’s so poorly edited you can always find something to support your argument.) But see Lev. 19:9; Lev. 25:35-38: Ex. 16:16-18; John 3:11; Mark 10:25.
brantl
Can we get a tag line for the acronym WABOD? (What A Bunch Of Dicks?) It seems appropriate for the guys that did this.
raven
@catclub: 5
scav
As this seems to a thread devoted to weirdess, teasting and women, I’ll throw in some appropriate.
Qatar women’s basketball team forfeit match after being told hijab is banned
Obituary: Dowager Duchess of Devonshire
envelopes can be pushed in so very many directions. Or something along those lines.
Is the internet on here? are the FYWP gerbil gods on the rampage again? Feeling neglected? There is a Mithras London story in short-term memory, would that appease them?
Ah ah thought of the third: More women than men have added their DNA to the human gene pool.
should be lots for the sciency mathy types to chew on. Any Anthro types?
night stands for bedroom
Wow that was strange. I just wrote an incredibly long comment but after I clicked submit my
comment didn’t show up. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyhow, just wanted to
say wonderful blog!
catclub
@Mnemosyne:
Probably envy based on the name of the Jeopardy champion computer.
Paul in KY
@Mike in NC: I like the way you think!
Paul in KY
@raven: My condolences to you & the family.
Roger Moore
@scav:
The explanation proffered in the article (that men are more likely to have multiple partners than women) seems likely. Imagine, for instance, looking at the genetic diversity of Mormons today. You’d find a lot more copies of Brigham Young’s Y chromosome than you would of any woman’s mitochondria. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be something as drastic as a man with a huge harem. Small differences in reproductive patterns could add up over the course of a generations and produce a drastic overall difference.
raven
Thanks all.
scav
@Roger Moore: It’s interesting to play around with in the head, because there are ways it’s utterly explicable, and then you can think of all sorts of counter-examples — research into female chimps and birds being less monogamous than once designated and the explanations of why that’s to their genetic advantage being trotted out. The regional differences is where I’d be most interested in digging further because there’s where the cultural signal might be strongest. The top article only mentioned essentially patrilocal systems — can we dig out evidence of matrilocality in the data? This seems to perhaps getting down to a scale with some interesting offshoots to play with.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
There’s probably also a relationship to maternal mortality back in the bad old days. It wasn’t that unusual for men to marry and have children with two or three women as their spouses died in childbirth and the men re-married. Add in illegitimate children and, well …
scav
@Mnemosyne: Or flip it, why did so many men not apparently make it into the next-gen gene pool? Was there a difference in male morbidity, or class / economic / status /other barriers that differntially frustrated their attempts? Whereas more women at least survived long enough to contribute their bit and weren’t left entirely childless and their exact personal status was of less importance for leaving progeny.
catclub
@Roger Moore: Also, could Genghis Khan alone have skewed the statistics?
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
Maternal mortality only matters if widowers can easily marry never-married women. If women tend to marry men their own age, then widowers with children will only be able to marry widows. IOW, it only makes a difference if you wind up with the same basic pattern of some men having several wives and others never getting married; it’s just that maternal mortality results in men being married to more than one woman in sequence rather than simultaneously. That certainly happens, especially in societies with settled wealth where a rich widower is considered a prime catch, but it still reflects a basic inequality in society.
Something similar is true of illegitimacy. It can only result in this kind of difference if it exists as a way for privileged men to have de-facto harems. If it’s a result of married people cheating on their spouses, it will result in as many women as men having children with multiple partners.
Roger Moore
@catclub:
I doubt Genghis could have skewed the statistics too much by himself, but he’s an example of the basic pattern. A man who has the opportunity can have many more children than any woman can because his involvement in the pregnancy is so much less. When you combine that basic physical inequality with the kind of social inequality you have in extremely patriarchal cultures, and men have a much bigger range in their number of children than women do.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
I think you’re forgetting the young ages at which some of this used to happen back in the day (at least among the aristocracy, who are the folks that we have the best records for). There’s no reason a young widow couldn’t have children with more than one husband, and most women back then stayed fertile until at least their late 30s, if not early 40s. Henry VIII’s widow, Katherine Parr, was married four times before she had her first child at approximately 36 years old. (She then died of puerperal fever, but that’s a somewhat different issue.)
Since I’ve been doing some Tudor reading lately, I was reading about Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who had children with all but one of his four wives plus a couple of mistresses. Two of those wives were widows when he married them and he had four children with Mary Tudor, who was widowed at age 20.
geg6
@Mnemosyne:
Yes, Brandon cut quite the swath with the ladies. I love the Tudor era!
scarshapedstar
If “4chan” had done it, tradition would dictate that they credit ebaumsworld.
Mnemosyne
@geg6:
His fourth wife was his oldest son’s fiancee. Brandon broke their engagement so he could marry her himself. That’s a guy who has game.