Moments after announcing British actress Emma Watson as its Goodwill Ambassador, the website of UN Women - the United Nations body dedicated to empowerment of women - crashed as millions of visitors surged in to read the news.
The sudden traffic spike, with a large number of visitors trying to read up on Watson, led to the website crash. UN Women noted on its Twitter handle that the announcement had caused the crash.
The exciting announcement of @EmWatson's appointment as our Goodwill Ambassador crashed our website! We apologize &hope to be back up soon.
— UN Women (@UN_Women) July 8, 2014
The 24-year-old also confirmed the news on her Twitter account.
Going to be working for the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and The Empowerment of Women (!!!) http://t.co/9ABpKSrNCb
— Emma Watson (@EmWatson) July 7, 2014
In her role as the Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women, Watson will promote gender equality and the empowerment of women, read a statement from the organization.
Watson, who recently graduated in English Literature from the Ivy League institution at Brown University, has been involved in promoting the cause of gender equality for long.
The actress worked on efforts dedicated to promoting education for girls and, for that, she visited Bangladesh and Zambia to spread the humanitarian efforts.
In a statement describing the news as "truly humbling", Watson promised she would dedicate herself fully to the new role.
"Being asked to serve as UN Women's Goodwill Ambassador is truly humbling. The chance to make a real difference is not an opportunity that everyone is given and is one I have no intention of taking lightly," the "Harry Potter" star stated.
Watson is the first Goodwill Ambassador appointment by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, under-secretary-general and executive director of UN Women.
"I am convinced that Emma's intellect and passion will enable UN Women's messages to reach the hearts and minds of young people globally," Mlambo-Ngcuka noted in her statement.
Watson joins a long list of actresses such as Drew Barrymore, Charlize Theron and Mia Farrow to have worked with the UN.
One of the most famous ones in the list is Angelina Jolie, who was previously a Goodwill Ambassador before being appointed Special Envoy of UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Twitter reactions:
Emma Watson announced she will work with UN Women to promote gender equality, causing the UN Women website to crash http://t.co/BeWPufmw1S
— Jean Chose ಠ_ಠ (@JeanChose) July 8, 2014
DID EMMA WATSON CRASH THE UN WOMEN WEBSITE
— faʀeha (@free_ha) July 8, 2014
@UN_Women @EmWatson And down goes the website http://t.co/aNm6TupzwA
— Daniel Norton (@DanielANorton) July 8, 2014
