Reddit Forbids ‘The Snappening’ (But Only As A Single File)

Reddit angered a number of users when it banned it’s ‘The Fappening’ subreddit, and many are angry over the latest edict, too: posting the massive ‘The Snappening’ file that includes hundreds of thousands of photos is also off-limits. Others say the ‘Snappening’ ban doesn’t go far enough.

The Snappening is the name given to the hacking, theft, and sexual attack in which users of SnapChat-like apps had photos stolen and posted online. However, the Snappening carries more weight than the Fappening in at least one sense; many users of SnapChat and similar apps are teenagers, and where the Fappening photos are alleged to have contained at least one celeb’s underage photos (Makayla Maroney, according to Business2Community), the Snappening is said to include masses of them, including photos of children as young as ten.

After the ban of the Fappening subreddit, similar subs sprang up, with the compromise that the photos could be discussed but not directly linked there, clearly as legal protection rather than a concession to the privacy or safety of the celebrities involved.

Saturday night, a moderator on a Fappening-related subreddit posted a warning addressing the Snappening files.

“PSA: Do not post links to the Snappening megafile.

Most of it is child pornography, and the whole subreddit could get in massive trouble.

That is all.”

Similar warnings about Snappening photos will likely soon surface on other subs or site-wide.

Throughout the Fappening, Reddit was decried from all sides as many users complained about being forbidden to post or access the celebrity nudes through the site, and others called the user-driven site out for focusing on free speech up to the current legal limit, rather than considering the privacy and safety of the victims.

In this Snappening ban, the same complaints are surfacing. Users are already making excuses, saying there’s no proof of age on the Snappening photos. Meanwhile, there’s been no overall ban on the Snappening photos, only of the massive file purported to contain over 200,000 images, prompting suggestions the site could make an effort to protect Snappening victims.

On 4chan (the website where the Snappening and Fappening photos were initially leaked), the original post that started ‘the Snappening’ has also been deleted. Users have threatened to make a searchable Snappening database, allowing searchers to identify individuals and seek out people by name.

Following the Fappening, many celebrities were blamed, either for owning photos of their own bodies or for expecting any degree of privacy. However, in the Snappening, targets are not famous, and there are masses of them. It’s possible that people who thought themselves immune find they or their children are Snappening victims. Where the Fappening brought attention to the horror of photo hacking, the Snappening may bring attention to the fact that anyone can be a victim.

While it’s sure to be scant comfort to Snappening victims, the Fappening and Snappening may be the impetus that will help change laws about photo sharing.

[photo credit: Kohei314 ]