Disturbing Banned Subreddits

Reddit has always been a strange place. For every wholesome community, funny story, or harmless hobby, there's another corner of the website where people gather for reasons that are far-hearted to explain. Places built around hatred, where humiliation becomes entertainment, and places where people can hide behind a username and indulgent things they'd never dare to do in the real world. Some of these communities lasted for years, and others were destroyed within days, but they all had one thing in common. Eventually, someone went too far. And eventually, the people behind the screen were exposed, and what was discovered was horrifying. Today, we're getting into some disturbing band subreddits and make sure to like the video and subscribe to the channel, and let's get into it. On autopilot, but all of a sudden, you see something that doesn't look quite right. You almost scroll right past it, but you can't ignore the feeling in your gut that tells you to just go back. You see your friend, but not from a post on her page, or a story from someone else you know. In fact, you're on Reddit, somewhere you would never expect to see your face. She looks normal. It looks as if she's at school, as she normally is a lot of time. She looks fine. So what about this is making you feel unsettled. You click on the post to see where this is from, how did it end up on your feet, and why is your friend in it? And what you find raises the hair on your arms as you read the name of the subreddit. Your stomach drops. Our slash creep shots. And the description goes as follows. A collection of my daily creep shots. Get sharing people. Turn that flash off, slip it into silent mode, and get creeping. Please share too. This was in May of 2012. At this time, there were 211 members, 211 other people that were taking photos of oblivious girls without their consent. So they could share it right there for the other 210 meant to see. The images were never explicit, although they were always suggestive. There was clearly something the person behind the camera was focused on. But no one was exposed. There was nothing illegal about it. But for someone who just came across a picture of their friend on it, and God forbid, for anyone who saw themselves on it, none of that mattered. It felt gross. It felt violating. It felt wrong. And by September of that same year, the amount of participants was off the charts. In those three months, the group got about 12,000 more members, along with some rules. Some examples include no upskirt shots. This is against the law and forbidden on the subreddit. And no photos taken on/in/around school settings or of school girls, unless you can confirm that they are not minors. Posts that cannot be confirmed will be removed. Along with a note to remind everyone visiting that everything on there was legal. A warm and friendly community. There are a few people who have been upset about the content of Creep shots, but it is vital for them to remember this. There is nothing illegal about this subreddit whatsoever. We may be immoral, creepy, sinister, some may even accuse us of being disturbed, individuals, but there is nothing here that breaks any laws. When you are in public, you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. We are no different than paparazzi, except we celebrate beauty without being paid for it. If someone said that to my face, I think I would genuinely laugh out loud. It's just absurd, because it's crazy enough that there are people out in the wild doing this to begin with, but it's even more insane to watch these disturbed, as the moderator said so eloquently, try and rationalize their in-sell-like and just sick behavior. And what's really disturbing about this whole thing is that these made up rules are literally made up. It did not take long to find post I go against the rules I just read. Of course, I can't show the pictures and I wouldn't want to, even if I could, but there's a post that has an image of a girl who is exposed under her skirt. And plenty of photos of girls who are clearly in high school, which makes many of them underage. The users of creep shots are not only delusional, but terrible people. And luckily, I'm not alone in feeling this way. There was plenty of outrage from other users on Reddit, mostly a group of people that made another subreddit called r-slash predators. It was here that users would gather information on the real lives of the members of creep shots and basically docks them. Sometimes, they would even go to the police if they suspected someone was doing more than taking photos of these girls. One member of predators was especially angry at creep shots' defense of its legality and defended her own subreddit over that very fact. Quote, "I'm doing something that's technically legal, but will result in consequences for their actions. These men think they can get away with its got-free, which is one of the reasons why SA is so prevalent around the world." What ended up happening, though, was that as much backlash as creep shots got, predators got just as much. Many users didn't like the way they handled it. They thought it went against the values that held Reddit together. Those values basically just being anonymity, something that the moderators of creep shots eventually had none of. Because it wasn't just other Reddit users outing them, but eventually a journalist saw what was happening and decided to get involved. This was Adrian Chen. Adrian identified user-violent acres as one of the moderators of creep shots, but he was much more than that. Only a year prior, violent acres had created a similar, but even worse subreddit called Arslash Jailbait, where users shared suggestive photos of specifically underage girls. Among that, his post-history had plenty of other gross, disturbed, and violent things relating mostly to women, but sometimes people of color and even animals. It became clear to Adrian that in order to do a piece on creep shots, violent acres would have to be the main focus. And it didn't take long to figure out the real identity behind the username. Michael brushed. At the time, he was 49 years old and worked as a software developer in Texas. After discovering his identity, Adrian decided to contact Michael himself, just to make sure he had the right person. And he did. As soon as the conversation began, Michael realized that Adrian knew exactly who he was. And suddenly, reality sunk in. His life as he knew it was over. He begged Adrian not to expose him. He told him that his wife was disabled and that he couldn't afford to lose everything. His cries and pleas did shake Adrian up. And for a moment, he reconsidered, questioning whether he was really willing to have something like this on his conscience. But then he thought about the women and girls whose photos had been posted to creep shots. Women who, without their consent, were being preyed upon by strangers on Reddit. Adrian wanted to stop it. And because all of it was legal, and these men could hide behind Reddit's free speech culture, writing this article on Michael was the only way he knew how to do it. So in October of 2012, he wrote his piece. He published it on a blog called Gokker, and everyone on Reddit went bad to say the least. Everyone began freaking out on how that wasn't fair to violent decrees, how everyone deserved a safe space to be anonymous, and how all of it went against the only rules that Reddit had. Two of which all paraphrase. Number one, don't publicize anyone's personal information, and number two, don't post any suggestive or explicit content of minors. And Adrian both broke rules, but honestly, one seems obviously worse than the other. The sad reality of it is that it looked like the only way to get creep shots to stop was to literally out them, to blast their real names, to make them feel ashamed of what they were doing. But what Adrian did still wasn't enough. It did kinda ruin Michael's life, from what we know at least, within 24 hours he lost his job, and I'm sure that was just the first stone of a crumbling wall that was his life. I can only imagine it might be difficult for someone to return to their normal life after an entire article like that was posted about them. And those consequences were just around the corner for the other moderators. Specifically, user creeper comforts, who on October 10, 2012 received this message. Please don't go to the trouble of denying your identity. We have archived a great deal of evidence to confirm it. Today, you have a choice between two options. Option one, shut down our slash creep shots, unmod all the other moderators, delete every submission, delete your own creep shots from ImJer, leave only one post up, a public apology from you to the women of Toronto and to women in general for what you've been doing. The apology should acknowledge that our slash creep shots is a vile subreddit because it normalizes perverted behavior. After a day or so, make this account moderator, make the subreddit private, remove yourself and delete the creeper comforts account, never post creepy pictures online again. Just don't take creepy pictures anymore. Or option two, use your imagination. We advise you to choose option one, clean up your mess, change your behavior, and move on with your life. You have 48 hours to decide. Immediately, demand behind creeper comforts went to the police to see if they could do anything. He had seen what happened to Michael and the thought of that made him desperate. Of course, law enforcement couldn't really do anything. Despite many redditors being outraged at how illegal this type of blackmailing is, it clearly seems ridiculous to walk into a police station and tell them to investigate the person behind this. And their motivation is because you're taking perverted pictures of women who are more likely than not under 18. Whether he actually went and tried that out for the cops is unclear. What is, is that this is what triggered the final end to creep shots. It doesn't actually seem like the subreddit was technically banned, but rather the moderators, specifically creeper comforts, felt so much pressure by the blackmailers and the press that they were pretty much backed into a corner. A corner where eventually they decided they had nothing else to do, except take down their beloved subreddit, which I'm sure left many creepers devastated. But the people that watched all of this go down were mostly just confused. It seemed like a lot of drama. And for what? The biggest question was what was to stop someone from creating a subreddit just like the old creep shots. And when that got banned, making another one, then another one, and the list goes on, which is another reason why so many redditors seem to think the whole thing was stupid. People were saying things like, quote, "I got curious." And yep, there is already an r-slash creep shots too. You can't bully your way into making a better society. It's never worked that way. The thing that users didn't seem to understand is that the doxing wasn't just about getting the community off the internet, but about literally shaming the people that were participating in it. The people of r-slash, predators, and Adrian Chen wanted people, and the men themselves, to see how sick their behavior really was. They wanted the world to know what they were doing was not okay. And if it didn't land them in prison, it was still downright awful, but like I said, most people just didn't get it. Someone says this is ridiculous, so someone committed an illegal crime to stop someone from doing something that was legal, and in the name of morality, what a joke. Hey, if you don't like living in a place where that stuff is actually legal, then move on. And another user says, as a woman, if I had to choose between someone leering at an anonymous clothed shot of my butt, and blackmailing me based on my intimate fantasies, I would choose the leering every time. Talk about the cure being worse than the disease. I felt perfectly safe on the streets, now it was standing creep shots, and related subreddits. And now I don't really feel totally safe having a reddit account. And someone else says, I for one, think this whole thing is hilarious. It's great that someone can feel personally not threatened by the members of creep shots, but some can be entertained by the drama. But underneath all of that are women who do feel like they can't step out of their house without being watched. The moderators previously described themselves as paparazzi, which are an infamous group of people that many celebrities openly despise and criticize. They want to have a normal life without cameras following them around, making them feel like an object all the time. And these are people that somewhat chose that lifestyle with the career they pursued. Women did not choose that. Women girls do not choose to go into school with the lurking idea in the back of their head that their math teacher may be taking secret photos of them on the day they wear a skirt to class. Which yes, is something that was posted on creep shots. But the worst part of it all, maybe that some of these previous comments are right. The removal of one subreddit is not nearly enough to take down an entire culture of men, who think this is okay. Just one search of creep shots on reddit, and I'm met with at least 50 posts of men either being caught in taking secret photos, confession from someone who takes them, or the men themselves being proud of their work. The cycle continues. On the internet and in real life, in parks, on the bus, in schools, everywhere and anywhere. Women run the risk of their body being shared for everyone to gawk at, for men to pass around. All the while remaining anonymous, hidden, safe, it never ends in it's disgusting. Our slash the Fapanane. Reddit knows little piece between its users. The subreddits are packed with arguments, sometimes even escalating to full on bullying. But occasionally, there are moments where things go beyond petty name calling. People get hurt, lives get ruined, and in August of 2014, an instance led to just that. It all began with a man from Pennsylvania, a man who was married with two kids, and had a promising career as a chef. Despite all of that, there was something missing, he wasn't satisfied. He felt bored. Motivated by these feelings, he felt the only excitement available to him was to leak some of the most personal, secret, and vulnerable pictures of over 100 celebrities. Each one of them, a woman. This man is known as Ryan Collins. And he was the start of what came to be referred to as the Fapanane. So how did a seemingly innocent and normal husband and father even begin to have access to pictures like this? It wasn't as complicated as someone might think. He started by finding his target's emails, and sent them all a message opposing to be Apple or Google, with the intent being that the company needed their long information. And with that, he was off. Once he had the passwords, he was in everyone's eye clouds. And from there, he could see everything. Every picture, video, text message, it all was ammunition being loaded into his weapon. A weapon that he unloaded on Reddit in 4chan on August 31st, 2014. Just a day prior, the lies of these women were completely normal. Their relationships were stable, their careers accelerating, and everything going as planned. But as soon as these pictures hit the internet, a bomb exploded over everything they thought they knew. list of everyone affected. is much too long to go over. But some of the women whose photos circulated the most were Rihanna, Selena Gomez, Mary Kate Olsen, and Jennifer Lawrence. Jennifer, in particular, was very outspoken on her reaction to this. She was only at 24 at the time. The first hunger games had only come out two years ago. And that was when she first rose to the spotlight. Things were still new to her. She was still finding her footing in Hollywood. But now that her private photos were being seen by thousands of people, she couldn't help but instantly worry about the state of her career. She first considered riding up a public statement. But she had no idea what to say. Apologize? Well, that was the first instinct, but for what? She had no idea. She had her own personal reasons to take the photos to begin with. Reasons she felt were no one's business. She was stuck. She could either say something that may or may not make the situation better, or she could sit and watch the internet, either enjoy pictures that weren't meant for them, or tear her to pieces. I can't even describe to anybody what it feels like to have my unclothed body shot across the world like a newsflash against my will. It just makes me feel like a piece of meat that's been passed around for profit. She doesn't need to describe it. Just thinking about it gives an idea of how disgusting it may feel, and how violent it was to leak the pictures to begin with. Because of course there would be people, especially men, who would pass them around like a collectible. Treating it like a piece of adult content, despite the human behind it, never giving consent. The content first got posted on some respective subreddits for specific people. Like one on R/K Upton that's titled, "Enjoy this new leaked pic." Eventually a post with a photo of Christian Dunst led to a mass decision to give the leak a name. Led with this comment by user Exile on Mean Street, who says, "I have dubbed this mass leak the "faponing." And with that, a user by the name of Johns McJohn created a subreddit with that very name, as some may have already guessed. I'll cut ahead and say right now that the community was eventually banned on September 7th, only have been active for about a week. Because of that, it's difficult to find any posts or activity from it, as much has been deleted. But I'm sure we can all imagine the type of things that were posted. And as far as the commentary on it, there's still plenty of people in post that are still up on Reddit. Like this one made September 4th, 2014, in R/AskMen. Someone says "Curious girl here, interested in hearing more about guys reactions to the explicit celebrity "faponing photo leaks." She follows it up with some specific questions. Like if any of the men had a specific celebrity, they searched for through the leak. If they had a favorite photo, and of course, what, if anything, they did with the pictures. Luckily, there were some replies that were very clear they thought the whole thing was wrong and they haven't looked at any images, especially not for enjoyment, but to no surprise, not everyone felt that way. One user says "I did, however, enjoy the photos themselves." They captured these celebrities being their authentic selves rather than their public personas. They showed the person behind the makeup and designer clothing. That's pretty cool, and not something you see every day. Yeah, not sure that the 100 women who did not want you to see that thought it was cool, but at least you got to see them without makeup, as if seeing them with it makes them less of a human being. It was that type of thinking. The idea that the photos could be enjoyed and seen as some sort of statement that really upset the victims behind the leak. It was Ryan Collins who started it, but the instant the pictures hit the internet, everyone who took part in looking, sharing, and commenting became at fault for the pain that it caused women like Jennifer Lawrence. And it wasn't just Reddit users, even online personalities and influencers, like Perez Hilton shared the photos that may have been what tipped Jennifer off the ledge. Now it wasn't just in sales and their mom's basement, but people who had thousands and thousands of followers partaking in this. Like I said, this all lasted about a week, and for those affected, it was an excruciating long week, but only a week. Once Reddit banned everything, there were some users who tried to bring it back with similar groups, or they would leak photos on a normal celebrity sub, but admins were quick to remove anything that popped up. And like most things, people moved on to another thing over time. They became disinterested in what had excited them only a week ago, and found something else to obsess over. And that's what makes it so sad. For the viewers of everything, it was just a bandwagon to jump on, something fun to discuss, and for many, even more fun to look at privately. But for the people they were looking at, it was their lives, their bodies, their careers, which luckily stayed intact for everyone. But the fear, disgust, and helplessness, they felt about the prospect of losing it still left a mark on them. Some, like Jennifer Lawrence, worded those feelings so well. They kept it simple and direct, just enough to put everyone in their place. So I will end with the statement that actor marry in Winstead made. To those of you looking at photos, I took with my husband years ago in the privacy of our home. I hope you feel great about yourselves. Our slash fat people hate. A little over a decade ago, there was a corner of reddit that acted as a breeding ground and a safe haven for some of the most vile bullies to lurk the internet. If you were unfortunate enough to stumble upon it, you'd be met with what felt like an unstoppable force of hatred. Here was a group where, together they had power. They had numbers. They had community. A community called our slash fat people hate. It only had a couple of rules, which included number one, no being fat. Number two, no dissent slash no fat sympathy. And number three, keep the peace. User Lee Lemon felt he only needed to follow the first two. When on March 10th of 2013, he responded to this comment made by an anonymous user who was referencing a plus sized person trying to lose weight, quote, "I wouldn't make fun of an alcoholic going to an AA meeting or an unemployed basement dweller for getting a part-time job. They're still losers, but they're taking steps to better themselves and admitting they have a problem rather than casting blame and wallowing in self-pity and delusion. She lost 50 kgs in six months, another 50, and she'll be a normal size. And Lee Lemon did not like this. He didn't like the scratch of empathy that we're still showing, because what he expected and what he wanted was someone who also shared the extreme disgust and hatred towards fat people that he did. Any ounce of compassion, understanding or well wishes towards them, and they were banned. Lee Lemon, who I found out was a moderator, had actually posted the entire interaction to show other users how ridiculous fat sympathizers are. As he calls this user, it's his evidence of why he had to kick them out of the group. And it's evidence for what exactly we're about to dive into. This is a far cry from the only post like this, in fact, things get worse. Much worse. On July 19, 2013, there was a post made by someone outside the group. An anonymous user says, "I am a 600 pound woman. Ask me anything." My cousin told me to do this. This user clearly did not know what she was getting herself into, because at some point, while comments flooded in, she added this, "Edit, I'm not going to do this anymore because you can't appreciate a real woman. I hate you all." She is one of the fat people's hate many victims. The response, while sometimes just general questions about her life, is mostly brutal remarks and insults. At least 50 people took time out of their day to ride out a cruel message for someone they had never even met. Messages like these. I hope you're discussing with yourself. And this. Shame being fat is not a crime. The fact the public has to even see you is wrong. Well, Despite the outrage that person feels, plus size people have the right to exist, anywhere other humans exist. But what happens when someone like OP here logs off Reddit and does actually go into the public? Into a grocery store, a restaurant, even right outside to the neighborhood park. Well, the users of Fat People hate follow them. No matter where they go, someone will be there watching them, maybe just with curiosity, possibly even gawking or even worse, hating them, disgusted with them, angry that they're in the same five-mile radius as them. User Liza 47 posted on July 24, 2013, a photo of someone, someone who clearly did not know their photo was being taken. They're at a picnic table in some type of outside food court, simply eating a meal or just meeting with a friend. This is what Liza 49 has to say about this, quote, "Lard beast spotted at university," with comments like "poor bench." This post is a snapshot into what the victims of this subreddit have to endure. Because while the person photographed may have no idea that they were being made fun of behind their back, they were dealing with someone who kept their thoughts to themselves. Not everyone was like Liza 49. Many users did not keep their bullying strictly online. A post with the title, "I can't do it anymore," details just that. I won't even read most of this post because of how vile and offensive it is, but he starts off the story like this. One item I had to get was string cheese for the kids as they absolutely devour that stuff in moderation, of course. So upon arrival to the cheese section, I stopped to do some comparisons on nutrition/value of the various string cheeses. I might have been standing there 20 seconds at the most when I hear "it's cheese." Come on, in a very agitated, hurry up tone. The person complaining behind him is someone that the OP considers fat, although he uses much more disturbing language, like the word "parasite" and "filth." Filled by the anger that drove him to talk like that, he tells this person off. He insults the guys way to his face, confronts him with an all-consuming hatred. From how he tells the story, it seems like this person just brushed it off and moved around him to look at the cheese. But his comments had to have hurt. Hearing a stranger comment on your body in such a way is nothing short of a punch to the gut. And even if he had been rude, that doesn't mean he deserves to be treated like that. I can only guess how we're played in his mind for the rest of the day. How much shame it created. What's really sad is how most plus sized people go through this on a daily basis. Treated like they're not human. And that's not an exaggeration. There are users on this subreddit that think exactly that. Just in the comments underneath this post are things like this. But being that he isn't human, I'm not at all surprised he couldn't bring himself to act like one. God, this makes me so mad. What a disgusting creature. I think that's enough to really paint the picture that the users of our slash fat people hate are generally awful people. They're much more than bullies. They're vicious and heartless, monsters. They're losers with no hobbies, no life, and such low self-esteem that the only way to compensate for that is to attack innocent people. Everyone they go after has literally done nothing wrong, except be bigger than them. But despite the terrible nature of the content that circulated the subreddit, it was incredibly active for exactly two years, created in June of 2013, and it lasted until June 10th of 2015 when the admins of reddits made this post on our slash announcements, removing harassing subreddits. The posts explained that they were banning five subreddits, but many were only concerned about the infamous fat people hate. The subreddit was a loop of negativity and bullying, but a lot of users loved it. Not just the active ones inside it, there were actually some that, while they hated the content that it was made of, respected its right to exist, and were upset that it had been removed. The posts received a ton of backlash with things like this. This is nothing more than just a systemic reduction of edgy subreddits yet again. What I'm shocked about is that it wasn't because of fat media attention like jailbait, creep shots, and the fapening. I hate that subreddit, but I stayed out of it. That's the point of reddit. What it came down to was the concern that now that the losers of fat people hate didn't have their private place to vent, all of that rage would bleed out into other areas of reddit or even the real world. But like I just read, that was already happening. These people obviously have zero emotional regulation. They have no ability to be nice to people, especially not to someone they don't even view as human. The examples I gave just a minute ago weren't even why the admins decided to remove the subreddit. It was actually because users were going into other communities like r-slash, keto, and r-slash tattoos, taking pictures from posts there and bringing it back to their fellow members to make fun of. And that's the point that reddit decided the group went from a place to vent to actually a place for people to harass people. And no one should feel like they have a comfortable place to do that. So while some of the negative reaction from the ban is understandable and reddit should remain a platform for free speech, it doesn't seem that unreasonable to not want that behavior tolerated. Users like Lee Lemmon and the ones that commented on the women who wanted to do and asked me anything should feel ashamed. They should feel guilty. They should be off the internet. Of course, these types of people and the sick comments they make will exist forever. That's the tragic part. No matter how much someone deletes a hateful post, another one pops up. But thankfully today, now that r-slash fat people hate is gone, there's one less place to put such awful things. And alright guys, that wraps up some disturbing banned subreddits. Please comment down below your thoughts on today's video. Did you enjoy it? And would you like to see more videos like this in the future? If so, like I said, comment down below. I read every single comment and I appreciate all of them and also make sure to like the video and subscribe to the channel. The channel subscriber goal is 1 million subscribers before the end of the year, so please subscribe. And once again, thank you guys so much for watching and make sure to follow me on instagram, follow me on Spotify, and check out my patreon for early access for all of my content. And alright, thank you once again so much for watching, and this was Snook, and I'll see you next time. Bye.