Reddit just
released its first transparency report, outlining the requests for user
information and for content takedown that it received in 2014.Not surprisingly, the report doesn’t go into detail about individual requests, but it does break things down by category. It also notes how many of those requests the news and content-sharing site actually complied with and offers some context around how the company makes those decisions.
On the user information side, Reddit says it received 55 requests in 2014, which covered 78 different user accounts. The requests asked for things like account registration data, log data, and content uploaded by users, and Reddit says it complied with 58 percent of them. In those cases, the company says it notified the affected user “unless provided by a court order or where we decide delayed notice is appropriate based on clear criteria.”
Last year, there was a wave of tech company transparency reports following Edward Snowden’s revelations about government surveillance, but in this case, Reddit says it has “never received a National Security Letter, an order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or any other classified request for user information.”
As for takedown notices, the company says it received 218, and it complied with 31 percent. Many of the notices that it didn’t comply with were for links to content hosted on other sites, or didn’t cover copyrighted or trademarked material. As a specific example, Reddit says it didn’t remove any content based on “claims of alleged defamation.”
Outside of the transparency issues, Reddit had a pretty wild 2014 — it raised $50 million, promised to give some of the equity to users, and lost its CEO.
You can read the full report here.
