Popular online forum Reddit updated its privacy policy to ban involuntary pornography on its website.
The new policy is a complete turnaround for the forum, which last year hosted a massive collection of nude pictures that were stolen from the cloud-based accounts of celebrities.
"No matter who you are, if a photograph, video, or digital image of you in a state of nudity, sexual excitement, or engaged in any act of sexual conduct, is posted or linked to on Reddit without your permission, it is prohibited on Reddit," the forum's moderators posted.
In addition, the policy also sees violent personalized images as harassment, with such images to be removed once Reddit's administrators are notified.
In an e-mail sent to The Washington Post, Alexis Ohanian, a co-founder of Reddit, said that the updated policy was spurred by a leadership change in the company late last year, which saw former CEO Yishan Wong step down and be replaced by interim CEO Ellen Pao.
Ohanian said that the Reddit team decided on the updated policy because Reddit, which is looking to grow even bigger, is being positioned to be best platforms for users to share authentic news and discussions while in no fear of their privacy.
The enforcement of the new policy, however, is not yet crystal clear. As it is worded, the policy suggests that Reddit will be taking down images that will be found in violation. The new policy does not state what Reddit will do against users that keep will keep violating the policy.
In dealing with the nude images of celebrities that were posed on Reddit last year, the forum took down the pictures due to a copyright issue and not due to the privacy concerns that are raised with the updated policy.
The commitment to upholding free speech is deeply rooted in Reddit's popularity, with the forum claiming that there are around 160 million Redditors from all over the world. People go on Reddit for different purposes, mostly for non-controversial reasons such as joining interest groups, reading up on the latest news and browsing through baby animal pictures.
However, Reddit's perceived reluctance in adopting policies that ban objectionable content to be able to maintain the forum's openness has previously led to several issues. For example, Reddit's policy of banning child pornography was only included two years ago after a public outcry against the /r/jailbait subreddit, which contained child pornography pictures.
The updated policy will take effect in two weeks, specifically on March 10.
