Reddit introduces anti-harassment policy

Reddit has introduced an anti-harassment policy that will allow users to email moderators about content that they consider to be harassment.

The popular link-sharing website said in a blog post that it will define harassment as “systematic and/or continued actions to torment or demean someone” that would make a reasonable person unlikely to continue using the site or make them fear for their safety.

“We’ve seen many conversations devolve into attacks against individuals,” the company said in a blog post announcing the new policy.

“We share redditors’ frustration with these interactions. We are also seeing more harassment and different types of harassment as people’s use of the Internet and the information available on the Internet evolve over time. For example, some users are harassing people across platforms and posting links on reddit to private information on other sites,” the post said.

It’s not the first time this year that the company has released a policy aimed at reducing harassment within its many, sometimes-unruly, communities.

In March, Reddit announced a policy meant to give people a recourse if photography of them nude or in a sexual situation is added to the site without their permission, an act often referred to as “revenge porn.”

Reddit was one of the sites involved in the 2014 release of hundreds of private photos of celebrities, many depicting their subjects nude.

Federal regulators are showing signs they are willing to get involved in such cases.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said in an April letter to FBI Director James Comey that he hoped the agency would do more to crack down on revenge porn. In January, the Federal Trade Commission ordered the owner of a defunct website that charged the subjects of the nude photos to take them down to destroy all of the images he had collected.

The announcement was the second time in a week that Reddit introduced a policy change to the public. On Wednesday, the site announced it was going to be giving users more details about copyright claims that led to posts being deleted.