Reddit has taken the step of banning the subreddit through which the now infamous Fappening images were made available last week. This follows the decision by 4chan -- the site originally used to leak the images -- to introduce a DMCA policy to help cope with copyright material. The move is unlikely to stem the flow of image sharing -- nor is it likely to prove popular -- but Reddit administrator alienth has posted a lengthy statement explaining the reasons behind the decision.
Just in case anyone managed to avoid the news, alienth includes a brief summary of the week's events.
"A very shitty thing happened this past Sunday. A number of very private and personal photos were stolen and spread across the internet. The fact that these photos belonged to celebrities increased the interest in them by orders of magnitude, but that in no way means they were any less harmful or deplorable. If the same thing had happened to anyone you hold dear, it'd make you sick to your stomach with grief and anger".
That it has taken Reddit a full week to properly respond to the issue has led to criticism, but the statement explains that things were held up by pressing problems: "First, the amount of traffic hitting this content was breaking the site in various ways. Second, we were already getting DMCA and takedown notices by the owners of these photos. Third, if we were to remove anything on the site, whether it be for technical, legal, or ethical obligations, it would likely result in a backlash where things kept getting posted over and over again, thwarting our efforts and possibly making the situation worse".
The Fappening subreddit -- /r/thefappening -- was a hotbed of activity. The age of at least one of the celebrities depicted in the leaked nude photos meant that it was classed as child pornography, and it seems that this was the tipping point. Reddit makes it clear that "this is where we have drawn a clear line in the sand". There then followed "a game of whack-a-mole"; the laborious task of taking down images only to find them reuploaded. The final decision was to close down the subreddits in question. "It's obviously not going to solve the problem entirely, but it will at least mitigate the constant issues we were facing. This was an extreme circumstance, and we used the best judgement we could in response".
The move was met by something of a backlash of comments, resulting in the creation of a FAQ in which Reddit makes clear that, as far as possible, it wants to remain a neutral platform: "We remove what we're required to remove by law, and what violates any rules which we have set forth". There is also the small issue that the site managed to benefit from an estimated 250 million page views, and commenters are unhappy that Reddit could have benefitted from this.
Photo credit: Konstantin Faraktinov / Shutterstock
