Reddit bans celeb nude page after getting blasted in the media, but users of the hugely popular networking site are not very happy. A highly trafficked subreddit called “The Fappening” became the epicenter of the recent scandalous naked celebrity photos leak, with the success came a lot of controversy.
Reddit bans celeb nude page following a backlash in the press, those who used to visit the popular subreddit find the move to be somewhat hypocritical. Last week, hackers leaked nude pictures of at least 101 celebrities, including Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence and model Kate Upton.
The leak was initially blamed on a breach in Apple’s iCloud, but the company denied being at fault. The hacking scandal was later said to be the result of phishing. A source told various media outlets, that hackers may have pretended to be a trustworthy entity like a communication provider in order to gain access to passwords and other information related to their targets.
Some of the celebrities involved in the scandal rushed to hire lawyers, others claimed that the photos were fake and the authorities were alerted. Despite the quick involvement of the FBI, the nude photos that first appeared on the popular board 4chan started spreading online. They could be found on sites like Twitter and Tumblr, but a subreddit was created named “The Fappening” that made it easier for people to access them.
The now banned page was named after M. Night Shyamalan’s 2008 movie The Happening with the addition of the word “fap,” which means masturbation. “The Fappening” had all the leaked images in one place.
Reddit banned “The Fappening” after the photos went viral and some in the media started calling out the site for contributing to the spread of the illegal pictures. The negative coverage was reminiscent of the attention the subreddit “/r/jailbait” received in 2011, when CNN’s Anderson Cooper decided to do a segment on it. The attention lead to the ban of the page that used to post images of teenagers in provocative poses.
Reddit was also flooded by DMCA notices from lawyers who wanted the site to take down links to their clients photos. It was becoming increasingly difficult for Reddit to keep up with all their DMCAs and opted to shut down the page. The site was torn between their love of free speech and the backlash that was starting to tarnish its image.
In a blog post titled “Every Man is Responsible for His Own Soul,” Reddit CEO Yishan Wong tried to defend the site’s posting of questionable content. Yishan said:
“While current US law does not prohibit linking to stolen materials, we deplore the theft of these images and we do not condone their widespread distribution. Nevertheless, reddit’s platform is structurally based on the ability for people to distribute, promote, and highlight textual materials as well as links to images and other media. We understand the harm that misusing our site does to the victims of this theft, and we deeply sympathize.
Having said that, we are unlikely to make changes to our existing site content policies in response to this specific event.”
Wong later said that he was not directly addressing “The Fappening” ban, his post was supposedly about the site’s general goal. He instead referred to Jason Harvey, a Reddit systems administrator, for more information about the banning of “The Fappening.” Harvey explained:
“As the week went on, press stories went out and debate flared everywhere. A lot of focus was obviously put on us, since reddit was clearly one of the major places people were using to find these photos. We continued to receive DMCA takedowns as these images were constantly rehosted and linked to on reddit, and in response we continued to remove what we were legally obligated to, and beyond that instructed the rights holders on how to contact image hosts.”
The Reddit administrator concluded by saying:
“The situation we had in our hands was the following: These subreddits were of course the focal point for the sharing of these stolen photos. The images which were DMCAd were continually being reposted constantly on the subreddit. We would takedown images (thumbnails) in response to those DMCAs, but it quickly devolved into a game of whack-a-mole. We’d execute a takedown, someone would adjust, reupload, and then repeat. This same practice was occurring with the underage photos, requiring our constant intervention. The mods were doing their best to keep things under control and in line with the site rules, but problems were still constantly overflowing back to us. Additionally, many nefarious parties recognized the popularity of these images, and started spamming them in various ways and attempting to infect or scam users viewing them. It became obvious that we were either going to have to watch these subreddits constantly, or shut them down. We chose the latter. 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.”
Reddit users are blasting the website for what they see as a form of hypocrisy. The site banned “The Fappening” whereas subreddits like “cutecorpses” and “sexwithdogs” are still online. The website also posts nude photos of non-famous women without their consent.
Those subreddits remain live because high-powered lawyers and the media are not going after them. Reddit despite its lofty goals is first and foremost a business. Sometimes, what is lucrative is not always very pretty or clean.
Then again, bestiality and necrophilia probably have supporters who find that there’s nothing wrong about them.
Morality is in the eye of the beholder, so is freedom of speech.
