http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012...eepshot-photos

A row over a Gawker journalist's investigation into extreme adult content on Reddit has highlighted issues of free speech versus privacy and the publication of offensive material on the content sharing and recommendations website.

One Reddit politics forum has banned links to Gawker after what the moderator described as "an attack on the site and its users".

The focus on Reddit's less salubrious content will be an embarrassment for owner Cond? Nast, publisher of Vanity Fair and Vogue, which bought the site in 2006.

Gawker journalist Adrian Chen began investigating one prolific Reddit user, Violentacrez, who has set up hundreds of sub-forums where users post links and images including bestiality, rape fantasy, under-age porn and upskirt photos.

Violentacrez most recently joined "Creepshots", a forum of stalking-style pictures of women taken without their consent. The forum was taken down on Thursday and has now been banned.

The same user posted last week's email exchange with Chen on a Reddit forum seeking advice, but was apparently so concerned that his identity would be revealed that he later deleted his account. Gawker published Chen's article, identifying Violentacrez as a 49-year-old employee of a financial services company in Texas, late on Friday.

In response, the Reddit forum's volunteer moderator PoliticsMod on Thursday published a statement about Gawker's "intolerable" behaviour, characterising Chen's investigation as an attack on the site's users.

"We volunteer our time on Reddit to make it a better place for the users, and should not be harassed and threatened for that. We should all be afraid of the threat of having our personal information investigated and spread around the internet if someone disagrees with you. Reddit prides itself on having a subreddit for everything, and no matter how much anyone may disapprove of what another user subscribes to, that is never a reason to threaten them.

"As a result, the moderators of /r/politics have chosen to disallow links from the Gawker network until action is taken to correct this serious lack of ethics and integrity."
Heath Reviewed by Heath on . Reddit blocks Gawker in row over 'creepshot' photos http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/12/reddit-blocks-gawker-creepshot-photos Rating: 5