Emma Watson The Latest Victim Of Celeb Photo Hacking

Emma Watson is to take legal action against hackers responsible for dozens of private images of her appeared online, alongside a number of mysterious nude photos apparently NOT of the Beauty and the Beast actress.

Images of the 26 year old star taken during a swimsuit fitting in which she tried on various outfits were leaked onto the internet on Wednesday (March 15th), after her computer was believed to have been hacked.

The pictures appeared alongside some other images of an unknown woman in the bath. Although the face of the person in question has been obscured in these photos, Watson has denied that those images are of her.

“Photos from a clothes fitting Emma had with a stylist a couple of years ago have been stolen,” her publicist said a few hours after the incident. “They are not nude photographs. Lawyers have been instructed and we are not commenting further.”

Web users said that pictures of Watson and fellow actress Amanda Seyfried had been spotted on the ‘dark web’, a Wild West-esque network of encrypted sites that allows users to surf anonymously.

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The hack comes just a week after Watson made headlines for posing in risqué photos for the cover of Vanity Fair magazine, with a debate ensuing as to whether or not she had betrayed her feminist principles by doing so.

Further back, the former Harry Potter star has previously been threatened with a leak of personal images after she made a speech about gender inequality, connected to her role as a UN Ambassador for Women, in 2015.

“I knew it was a hoax, I knew the pictures didn't exist,” she said back then about how she responded to such threats. “The minute I stepped up and talked about women's rights I was immediately threatened - within less than 12 hours I was receiving threats.”

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