The countdown website posted on 4chan EmmaYouAreNext, which threatened to expose nude photos of English actress Emma Watson, turned out to be a hoax by Rantic Marketing.

The site, which featured a four-day countdown and threatened to expose nude photos of Watson, went viral among Internet users, but it is revealed that the site is a hoax engineered by a viral marketing firm called Rantic.

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The website called EmmaYouAreNext was launched last Tuesday following the actress' feminist movement speech for UN Women. It was initially speculated as a smear campaign against the actress who is said to have angered the anonymous hackers responsible for the ongoing hacking scandal in Hollywood.

However, the site was eventually redirected to a page called rantic.com which allegedly aims to shut down 4chan, the site where the hacked nude photos and videos of numerous celebs were uploaded.

The new page that replaced the countdown page at midnight last Wednesday is a website that features a page that says #shutdown4chan. As it turns out, it is a campaign that goes against the anonymous posting on the forum.

According to media reports, every mention, like and share of the EmmaYouAreNext page done on Twitter or Facebook will be counted as a signature in the campaign to shut down 4chan.org.

On a side note, Rantic Marketing isn't a real company. According to a media outlet which featured the site last year, the people who work behind the site are members of a spamming group called SocialVEVO which tries to capture traffic from interesting news reports and eventually brings such topics to people's attention.

In an open letter that Rantic Marketing has addressed to President Obama, they said that they have hired celebrity publicists in order to bring attention to the 'disgusting situation', referring to the Hollywood hacking scandal.

"The recent 4chan celebrity nude leaks in the past two months have been an invasion of privacy and is also a clear indication that the Internet NEEDS to be censored," writes the representative of Rantic Marketing.

Furthermore, it is reported that the marketing firm has connections with Foxweekly, which is the first site to break the news about EmmaYouAreNext. Despite that, Rantic has taken full responsibility for the hoax.

Brad Cockinghman, who was listed as the CEO and founder of Rantic, did not release an official statement to address the issue, but on a Twitter post he expressed that he supports Watson on her campaign, adding, "Shut down 4chan prevent suicides and violence towards women. Support the cause. End the problem!"

TagsEmma Watson, EmmaYouAreNext, Rantic Marketing, Hollywood Hacking Scandal