The Fappening creator does AMA on Reddit's shutdown

It would be hard not to have seen that some celebrities, mainly female, had nude photos leaked online last week.

You may not have been familiar with the website, 4chan, on which they were posted.

However, not long after they were published, they began to appear on other sites, including Reddit.

One Reddit user, johnsmcjohn created a subreddit called The Fappening, which became a destination for users wanting to see the pictures.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it gathered thousands of views and now Reddit has shut it down.

The site claimed because of a DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) order, they were required by law to take down any stolen images, which included pictures of The Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence.

Reddit said the process "devolved into a game of whack-a-mole".

The site added: "It became obvious that we were either going to have to watch these subreddits constantly, or shut them down. We chose the latter."

Since then johnsmcjohn has done an AMA (ask me anything) on Reddit to discuss his views on the takedown of The Fappening.

"I did not start the sub to be the prime place on the internet for celeb leaks," he said.

"I created it because I liked the name and I thought it would get a decent sized community modded by myself and a few other mods I'd selected.

"I never thought it'd be the fastest growing sub in history, but when it was, I rolled with it and tried to ensure any content was in line with Reddit's rules."

Mary Elizabeth Winstead was one of the celebrities to acknowledge the photos that were leaked were actually of her.

Other people, including former Nickelodeon star and singer Victoria Justice, said the images claiming to show them naked were not real.

Johnsmcjohn also responded to an article in the Washington Post, in which the author claimed to have gone through his previous posts to uncover more about his personality and identity.

Caitlin Dewey describes him as an active participant in the cocaine forum, as a member of communities for people who have autism and who are asexual and someone who "regularly discusses his financial problems on Reddit and Twitter".

Johnsmcjohn said: "Why is my being on an asexuality website or an Aspergers board relevant to my work on /r/TheFappening?"

He added: "I decided Thursday that I wouldn't delete my account and if the press wants to send me thru the ringer, so be it. I won't be bullied into silence."

Last week 4Chan announced it would enact a DMCA policy to let content owners get illegally shared material removed.

The FBI has said it is investigating the hack.

Apple has confirmed that some celebrities' iCloud accounts were broken into, but says it has found no evidence that this was caused by a breach of its security systems.

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