Reddit Takes First Step Against Adult Content

LOS ANGELES—As powerful as other social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are, Reddit is often forgotten in the lists. With 234 million members and approximately 8 billions page views per month, the platform represents one of the most engaged communities. Reddit’s system is naturally built to highlight online influencers; all posts are automatically submitted to a voting process: The most up-voted messages receive the most visibility. The platform gathers thousand of communities organized in subreddit topics and this is why advertising on Reddit can be very successful. Companies are able to promote top posts to a very targeted audience, directly on its front page. On Tuesday, Reddit posted an update about their Not Suitable for Work Advertising Policy. From now on, the platform doesn’t allow any adult-oriented ads and targeting. Promoted posts pushing adult products or services are no longer permissible and NSFW subreddits will no longer be eligible for ads or targeting. The new policy targets specifically targets pornographic and sexually explicit content as well as adult sexual recreational content, product and services. On the other hand, ads that are promoting the prevention of pregnancy and/or sexually transmitted infections and erectile dysfunction are still allowed (as long as they don’t target minors and keep the focus on clinical aspects).Redditors expressed their disappointment and fear about further measures against the adult industry and the support of positive sexual behaviors. An article on the famous blog “Girl on the Net” shares an interesting reflection from an industry member in an article titled: “Reddit NSFW ads: Viagra is good, sex toys are shameful." The platform is still of a great interest for our industry since it isn’t banning any adult explicit posts made by users … should we say, isn’t banning yet*? The policy is only affecting paid advertising but members are still allowed to post NSFW content in dedicated adult and sex-related subreddits. From what I have seen analyzing 7 Veils clients' results, Reddit can sometimes even overtake Twitter’s fantastic traffic generation. For more details about 7 Veils' social media marketing services on Reddit, please email [email protected]