Following Emma Watson‘s passionate speech on gender equality yesterday at the United Nations, anonymous threats have been made against the actress online.
Gawker report that a website has been set up with the ominous title ‘Emma You Are Next’, and a clock counting down to roughly four days from now, along with the words ‘never forget, the biggest to come thus far.’
The substance of the threat is not clear, as nothing specific is mentioned on the website, but the mere fact of its existence, seemingly to punish Watson for speaking out on behalf of women, is extremely disturbing.
Many have assumed that the threat relates to the recent iCloud hack, after which intimate photos of well-known celebrities were distributed online. Watson spoke out about this earlier this month, expressing dismay at the disregard for women’s privacy:
Even worse than seeing women’s privacy violated on social media is reading the accompanying comments that show such a lack of empathy.
— Emma Watson (@EmWatson) September 1, 2014
Her UN speech decried the fact that ‘feminism’ has become synonymous with ‘man-hating’ and asked men to take up the mantle for equality, but depressingly, her point whizzed right past many people, and she quickly became the target of an online hate campaign.
Yesterday, a group of anonymous internet users attempted to get the hashtag #RIPEmmaWatson trending, and spread fake news reports about her death in a hotel room. You can read some of their archived comments here, but be warned that it’s pretty ugly stuff.
The best case scenario is that this is all a hoax, although really, there is no best case scenario when the simple fact of a woman speaking out in favour of gender equality is enough to stir up a toxic swamp of online hate and retribution.
Photo: Andrew H Sullivan via Getty Images
