A new controversy is brewing due to the type of content that is published in Reddit. A recent report from the BBC exposes how in the United Kingdom the platform has become a space for buy and sell photos and videos of naked women or having sex. Material that in many cases is generated or distributed without your consent.
But the story does not end there. Many of the women who see their intimacy marketed to tens of thousands of men on Reddit are also doxxed. This means that their personal data – first and last name, address, phone number and social networks, both their own and those of family members – are shared publicly among strangers who then try to blackmail them to obtain more material.
Photos and videos are shared on subreddits that often escape moderation, both from the forum itself and from Reddit itself. And although other images that are not of a sexual nature, stolen from social networks, are also shared, each publication is accompanied by thousands of brutal comments. From insults and disqualifications, to threats of rape.
The report mentions cases in which packs containing 500 sexual photographs disclosed without consent were offered for sale. In some And for such modest prices that they started from 5 pounds sterling. The origin of the content? Revenge porn, more often than not.
Women affected by this situation have not always received the necessary response or support from Reddit. Victims consulted have mentioned that while the platform has acted quickly to remove some posts, sometimes they must wait between 4 and 8 months for the material to disappear. And other times she is never erased. That gives malicious users time to share it on other websites, or even repost it on different subreddits.
In the United Kingdom, they use Reddit to traffic intimate photos and videos
As we already mentioned, the doxxeo is the other big problem that comes with the traffic of intimate photos and videos on Reddit. Women who are victims of this situation receive messages from unknown persons who they harass them and threaten to divulge the content among their relativesas a method to get more images or, directly, sexual relations: “If you don’t have sex with me, I’ll send it to your parents. I’ll come get you. If you don’t agree to have sex with me, I’ll rape you.”
The BBC managed to identify the creator of a subreddit more than 20,000 users. When his name and occupation became public, he deleted the group and released a statement saying that it had become so large that it exceeded his ability to moderate it. She even assured that the original intention of it was to “appreciate the women of South Asia”, since most of the content corresponded to women of that region. However, it was shown that every time Reddit closed the forum for violating their policies, he reopened it under a slightly different name.
What is the platform doing to prevent this from happening? From Reddit they assure that In 2021, nearly 90,000 sexual images posted without consent were removed. But they recognize that it is not enough. “We know we have more work to do to prevent, detect and act on this content even more quickly and accurately. We are investing in equipment, tools and processes to achieve this goal,” they indicated.