I can hear the sobbing from reddit echoing down my Ethernet cable: Imgur, the image hosting platform favoured by meme-lovers, is cracking down on not safe for work (NSFW) material, banning risqué and pornographic content en masse, thus neutering the internet’s favourite visual playground.
Imgur was founded in 2009 by Alan Schaaf as a quick, unrestrictive image hoster, designed with reddit integration in mind. Almost immediately, it became the go-to platform for memes, controversial images, and pornography.
Now, with the launch of its Android app, and the imminent release of an iOS app, Imgur is trying to clean up its act. Though the terms and conditions have prohibited NSFW content for some time, its enforcement of that policy was practically non-existent.
Imgur spokesperson Michelle Masek told Vice, “We’ve always had rules against obscene and NSFW content and comments, and these guidelines have been in place for years. The difference here is that Imgur team has grown a lot this year, and we’re now better equipped to respond when Imgurians flag content as inappropriate to us.”
Masek went on to blame the Imgur community for recent rash of image takedowns, saying, “Ultimately, the community decides what’s inappropriate and flags it to Imgur’s attention,” adding that the site is “entirely self-policing.”
What will reddit do? Well, once it stuffs that spaghetti back in its collective pocket, it’ll probably move over to Minus, with is like Imgur but with more open terms and conditions.
Thank you Vice for providing us with this information.
Image courtesy of Imgur.
I don’t think they banned NSFW on the subreddits. You can still upload porn to imgur, just not publish it to the gallery. The redditors just upload it and link to it on Reddit.