Reddit vows to take down revenge porn posts

Reddit is introducing tougher rules to tackle nude photo posts, five months after naked pictures belonging to a slew of Hollywood celebrities were leaked onto the site by hackers.

The social forum will remove any intimate images of people posted on its subreddits when notified that the snaps were posted without permission, it announced in an update to its privacy policy.

The company wrote yesterday: "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.

"We also recognise that violent personalised images are a form of harassment that we do not tolerate and we will remove them when notified."

The move follows a huge leak of personal nude photos of celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence and Kirsten Dunst in a breach known as the Fappening'.

The photos, pulled from Apple's iCloud by hackers, were posted on Reddit and the 4Chan message boards last September.

Following increasing media pressure, Reddit eventually took the photos off its site, yet similar photos of non-celebs remained.

The social forum yesterday admitted it had "missed a chance" to protect people's privacy, adding the updated privacy policy is a step in the right direction.

The revision doesn't mean intimate photos cannot be posted online to start with, however, just that Reddit will take them down if notified by victims that they were posted without permission.

The UK government made revenge porn, the act of posting nude pictures of others without their consent, illegal earlier this month.

Those who circulate such photos can face up to two years in prison under an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said at the time: "The fact there are individuals who are cruelly distributing intimate pictures of their former partners without their consent is almost beyond belief.

"We want those who fall victim to this type of disgusting behaviour to know that we are on their side and will do everything we can to bring offenders to justice."

Reddit's updated privacy policy will come into effect on 10 March, but it's not clear whether it will notify the police when UK users do post revenge porn.