Is Reddit's Nudes Problem Unsolvable?

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Reddit appears to finally be taking action against non-consensual nude images. In a change to its privacy policy on Tuesday, the site an​nounced people who find "involuntary pornography" media of themselves can report it to Reddit to have it removed as quickly as possible.

"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 new policy reads.

The policy update, which goes into effect on March 10, appears to be due, in part, to Reddit's response to the hacking and posting of nude photos of celebrities last year, which was wid​ely criticized.

"Last year, we missed a chance to be a leader in social media when it comes to protecting your privacy—something we've cared deeply about since reddit's inception," the statement said. "At our recent all hands company meeting, this was something that we all, as a company, decided we needed to address."

Although the celebrity hack drew major criticism of the site's privacy policies, it was far from the first instance of non-consensual porn posted to the site. Previously, Reddit s​hut down the community r/jailbait for posting sexual images of minors. Another community dedicating to posting images of women against their will called r/Creepshots was sh​ut down in 2012.

However, efforts to regulate inappropriate subreddits are inherently at odds with the democracy central to the site. Anyone can create a community with very little regulation, and it is difficult to keep the same themes and communities from cropping up under new names.

For example, although r/theFappening, the subreddit devoted to the celebrity hack, was ultimately shut down, it sprouted up again as r/celebnsfw, which is still active. After r/creepshots was shut down, it reemerged shortly after as r/candidfashionpolice, where posters try to vaguely disguise their creepshots as fashion critiques "similar to TLC's what not to wear and E!'s Fashion Police."

The new policy marks what appeared to some as a reversal. In an interview in 2011, Reddit co-founder Alexis Oh​anian suggested the site isn't responsible for the content users post as it is just "a repository of links."

"As long as what is going on is legal, there is nothing we can do to effectively police it, because these things will always continue to exist on the internet, because they always continue to exist in humanity," he said. "Tell parents, that your kids need to know that anytime they take an image and put it in a digital format … they should assume it is now public content. It is everywhere."

@AdrianChen @MikeIsaac A *platform* can decide how it wants to handle privacy of its users, which is what we're doing.

— Alexis Ohanian (@alexisohanian) February 24, 2015

On Twitter today, Ohanian expanded on his previous statements. "It's still true: people, businesses, govt's should all default assume 'digital = public,'" he ​tweeted. "A *platform* can decide how it wants to handle privacy of its users, which is what we're doing. These two views are not mutually-exclusive."

When Ellen Pao took o​ver as CEO of the site in November of 2014, som​e speculated it would usher in a new era for the site and the unwelcoming environment it poses for women. In an interview​ Tuesday with the New York Times, Ohanian suggested this may be the case, saying new changes are reflective of how he and Pao "have began to think more deeply about the future of how Reddit will look in the years ahead."

In announcing its new privacy policy, Reddit also said it hopes to grow the site to 90,000 subreddits from its current range of more than 9,000. Here's hoping they find a way to ensure they stamp out old problems of sexism and privacy concerns as these new communities emerge.