Emma Watson has condemned the recent leaked personal images of celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence, Kirsten Dunst and Kate Upton but has also attacked the response it's created, claiming the reaction to the invasion of privacy shows a "lack of empathy".
The Harry Potter hit back last night on Twitter, 24 hours after the initial 'scandal' broke and naked images of actresses were shared on 4Chan by an anonymous hacker. Around 100 stars have been named in an online list, that the hacker claims to have images and videos with Downton Abbey star, Jessica Brown-Findlay, the latest victim.
Currently it appears Watson hasn't been a victim of the violation, but sticking up for her fellow actresses, she said the response to the incident had been worse than the crime.
"Even worse than seeing women's privacy violated on social media is reading the accompanying comments that show such a lack of empathy," she wrote.
Twitter did attempt to control the spread of the personal images, many which showed the women completely nude, by shutting down any accounts which shared the photos, but it didn't stop the pictures going viral.
It doesn't take too much imagination to work out what kind of comments highly sexual, nude images of famous women would spark on Twitter. But another, perhaps surprising, reaction has been against stars who've denied the images are them like Victoria Justice, Ariana Grande and US gymnast McKaylay Maroney, with fans claiming they're lying.
The British actress has stuck up for her fellow stars (WENN)
So far, Kristen Dunst, Kate Upton and Jennifer Lawrence have all acknowledged the images are genuine.
The FBI confirmed on Monday, according to the Associated Press, that they would be looking into allegations that personal accounts had been hacked. A rep for Jennifer Lawrence also confirmed they were treating this as a criminal act.
"The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence," she told TMZ on Sunday.
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