In a hacking scandal reminiscent of the celebrity photo leaks that made headlines in 2014, personal photos of a number of female celebrities were circulated online this week.
The images range from tame snaps to explicitly s-xual photos and include such stars as Emma Watson and Amanda Seyfried.
They began circulating late Tuesday night on Reddit and 4chan.
Watson and Seyfried launched legal action Wednesday and a representative for Watson confirmed to AFP that some of the photos are legitimate: “Photos from a clothes fitting Emma had with a stylist a couple of years ago have been stolen. They are not n-de photographs. Lawyers have been instructed and we are not commenting further.”
The images of Watson show her in various outfits in front of a mirror and photographs of her hanging out with a group of friends. However, the photo dump includes images of a woman posing n-de in a bathtub which the hackers claim is Watson – although the face of the woman is not visible.
The purported photos of actresses Amanda Seyfried and Jillian Murray that have been circulated online are more explicit and appear to show both women n-de.
The images have been heralded online as “The Fappening 2.0,” in reference to the 2014 iCloud hacking of celebrity photos which saw intim-te shots of actress Jennifer Lawrence leaked online.
In 2014, Watson took to Twitter to criticize the “lack of empathy” for Jennifer Lawrence and the other celebrities whose n-de photos had been posted without their permission.
