When one member of 4Chan posted naked pictures of 100 female celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence on their forum, there was an instant backlash. J Law's reps called it 'a flagrant violation of privacy' and Twitter have said they're suspending any accounts that disseminate the pictures.
But on the corner of the internet where it all began there's been a response that's as twisted as the original leaking of the hacked images – a post that launches 'the worldwide trolling of a lifetime' campaign. Specifially, the trolling of women who support Jennifer Lawrence.
A post on the 4Chan – which is basically an online forum where people post an array of things, but a good chunk of its traffic is derived from a channel called /b/ which is designed to shock as much as possible – reads: 'The goal: Hundreds of thousands of girls are going to post their own topless and nude pics to Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr while holding handwritten 'Solidarity for Jennifer' signs. We need to frame this in a way that makes this trend seem like a SJW [social justice warrior] tactic to combat the patriarchal savagery of men on the internet!'
One anonymous commenter (they're basically all anonymous, big men that they are) replied, according to* Buzzfeed*: 'Genius. Solidarity with a side of "don't slut shame me". Do it m8.'
The way 4Chan went about this was by starting new Twitter accounts using porn actresses photographs. Adding in hashtags to their Tweets like #LeakForJLaw, they posted naked photos of their fake selves, hopefully in a bid to show other women they should join in without shame.
But obviously, no one's actually fallen for it, beyond a couple of IRL porn actresses who were going to put nudes out there anyway.
As well as women responding with their suspicions that #LeakForJLaw is a man-built hoax, men are showing their solidarity against 4Chan by giving the hackers a barrel-full of boner-kill in the form of their naked, hairy man-bodies.
Ok, nothing is going to undo the fact that the hacking of these horrific videos and photos of up to 101 celebrities is a basic theft of their property and violation of their rights to privacy. And little will change that people have sought out the images either for wank fodder (nothing sexier than someone who doesn't consent to you seeing them naked, right?) or for FOMO-reasons dressed up as 'I was just looking so that I know what everyone's talking about and isn't it gross and sad?'
But with blokes like these around to combat 4Chan with humour, and women just not humouring the bullshit solidarity hoax, it looks like there's only so far the trolls can get out from under their bridge.
** Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson**
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.