Transparency Report 2017

January 1, 2017 - December 31, 2017

Reddit publishes this transparency report every year as part of our ongoing commitment to keep you aware of the trends on the various requests regarding:

• private Reddit user account information; or
• removal of content posted to Reddit.

Reddit believes that maintaining this transparency is extremely important. We want you to be aware of this information, consider it carefully, and ask questions to keep us accountable.

As in previous years, Reddit has included as much information regarding requests received in 2017 as we are legally able.

Additional information for broader context and comparison is available in reports for previous years.

Disclaimer: All reasonable care has been put into compiling the information provided in this report. The content is as accurate as possible.

The types of requests we received are categorized below, providing data specific to that category. The data presented includes information regarding the number of requests received, who submitted them, and how often we either complied or pushed back.

In 2017, Reddit received 310 requests for the preservation or production of user information from government entities or law enforcement officials. Reddit carefully reviewed each request for compliance with legal standards, as well as company policy.

In general terms, this means that requests need to be in writing, received from someone with authority to make such a request, and made on the basis of an appropriate law. If a request does not appear to meet certain requirements, Reddit will reject the request. An example could be a request that seeks vaguely defined information, seeks categories of data that are too broad, or seeks information using a form of legal process that is insufficient to obtain the data sought (e.g., Reddit would object to a subpoena that seeks communications content). When that happens, Reddit asks the requesting party to refine, limit, modify, or withdraw the request as appropriate. For more about United States legal process, see the 2015 transparency report.

As stated in our Privacy Policy, Reddit attempts to notify the relevant user whenever we receive valid legal process that requires us to produce their information, unless a valid non-disclosure order prohibiting such notification is also included.

Of the 310 requests submitted by government entities:

• 79 were requests for Reddit to preserve account information; and

• 231 were requests to produce account information.

A preservation request asks Reddit to save certain user information beyond the date it would ordinarily be deleted, as specified in the Privacy Policy. Generally, government entities or law enforcement officials send these requests in anticipation of a forthcoming request for production of that information. Reddit only processes preservation requests from U.S. authorities.

In 2017, Reddit received 79 preservation requests, a 93% increase compared to the 41 requests received in 2016. Reddit complied with 75% of these requests, which resulted in Reddit preserving account information for 144 different users.

Country		Number of Preservation Requests		Requests complied with
United States		75		59
Australia		1		0
Canada		1		0
Ireland		1		0
Switzerland		1		0
Total		79		59

In 2017, Reddit received a total of 231 requests to produce account information from both United States and foreign governmental entities. This represents a 36% increase compared with last year. United States government entities or law enforcement officials sent the majority of the production requests. Reddit received additional submissions from officials in 12 other countries, listed below under Foreign Requests.

The number of users affected by these requests also increased in 2017, but notably the percentage of requests for which Reddit produced user account information decreased slightly.

	2015	2016	2017
Number of requests for user account information received	98	170	231
Percentage of requests where we produced some or all of the requested user account information	60%	62%	61%
Number of users affected by the production of user account information	142	137	193

United States Requests

Of the 231 requests for user information made by government entities, Reddit received 193 from federal and state authorities in the United States. These include subpoenas, court orders, search warrants, emergency disclosure requests, and real-time monitoring orders.

	Subpoena	Court Order	Search Warrant	Emergency Disclosure Request	Real-Time Monitoring Request	Total
Number (Percentage) of Total Requests Received	127 (69%)	1 (<1%)	23 (10%)	41 (21%)	1 (<1%)	193 (100%)
Number (Percentage) of requests where some or all of the requested user information was produced	104 (82%)	1 (100%)	19 (83%)	10 (24%)	1 (100%)	135 (70%)
Change from number of requests received in 2016	+ 58	- 7	- 9	- 22	0	+ 96

Real-Time Monitoring Requests

Reddit received one order to conduct real-time monitoring of a Reddit user’s communications in 2017. This request was a Pen Register / Trap and Trace Order, which allows the government to obtain certain non-content information, such as “dialing, routing, addressing, or signaling information” prospectively. 18 U.S.C. § 3127(3). Reddit complied to the extent it had the ability to do so.

United States Emergency Disclosure Requests

In 2017, Reddit received 41 Emergency Disclosure Requests from United States governmental authorities in the United States. Reddit disclosed user account information in response to 10 (24%) of these Requests.

Foreign Requests

In 2017, Reddit received 38 foreign requests to produce account information (including Emergency Disclosure Requests).

	General / Non-Emergency Disclosure Requests	Emergency Disclosure Requests	Total
Number (Percentage) of Total Requests Received	24 (63%)	14 (37%)	38 (100%)
Number (Percentage) of requests where some or all of the requested user information was produced	0 (0%)	5 (36%)	5 (13%)
Number (Percentage) change from number of requests received in 2016	+ 5 (+21%)	- 5 (- 36%)	+/- 0

The non-emergent requests came from 12 different countries, as outlined below:

Country	Number of requests
Argentina	1
Australia	1
Canada	5
Czech Republic	1
Denmark	5
Germany	1
India	1
Japan	5
Singapore	1
Sweden	1
Switzerland	1
United Kingdom	1
Total	24

Foreign Emergency Disclosure Requests

Reddit received 14 Emergency Disclosure Requests from Foreign Law Enforcement authorities in 2017. Reddit disclosed user account information in response to 5 (36%) of these Emergency Disclosure Requests.

Country	Number of Requests	Number of requests where some / all user account information was turned over	Number of user accounts affected
Canada	7	2	2
Germany	3	1	1
Japan	1	0	0
United Kingdom	3	2	2
Total	14	5	5

While most requests for user information are submitted by governmental entities, private parties also issue requests for information, for use in civil litigation and in criminal defense proceedings. Usually in the form of a subpoena duces tecum, criminal defense subpoena, and/or court order, these requests cannot compel Reddit to disclose the contents of user communications. This means that such requests may require Reddit to provide the following information only:

• Basic account information, which includes incoming IP address logs, username, length of service, services used, any other subscriber identity (such as an email address), and payment information; and
• Transactional information, such as message headers and device/browser information. Reddit regularly objects to, and seeks to narrow, private party subpoenas seeking transactional information that are not accompanied by a court order.

In 2017, Reddit received 11 requests for private user information from non-governmental entities. This is an increase from 6 non-governmental requests received in 2016.

As with governmental requests, Reddit attempts to notify the relevant user whenever we receive valid legal process that requires us to produce their information, and seeks to narrow, modify, or move to quash such requests as appropriate. We provided user information in response to 4 (36%) of those requests because they were legally valid and the issuing party was able to resolve our objections.

Reddit received a wide variety of requests to remove content in 2017. Examples range from private individuals reporting alleged unauthorized use of copyrighted material, to foreign governments requesting access be geographically restricted for certain content due to local laws.

Reddit received a total of 23 requests to remove or restrict access to content from 4 foreign governmental entities. India, Portugal, Russia, and the United Kingdom sent requests for various reasons, including content that was deemed illegal in their jurisdiction, offensive, or a threat to the security of that country.

While some of these requests were not removed or restricted on a legal basis, several were removed for violating the terms of Reddit’s content policy. Where appropriate, rather than removing a post outright, Reddit may make the post inaccessible in a particular country (“Geoblock”).

Country	Number of requests	Number of requests where content was blocked or removed	Type of content affected
India	4	0	N/A
Portugal	1	1	1 Post was removed for violation of the Content Policy.
Russia	5	4	2 Posts were Geoblocked for legal reasons. 1 user account was banned for legal reasons. 1 post was removed for violation of the Content Policy.
United Kingdom	13	12	11 Posts were removed for violations of the Content Policy. 1 user account was banned for violation of the Content Policy.
Total	23	17

In addition to removal requests from foreign governments, Reddit received a total of 58 requests for the removal from other foreign non-governmental entities. Examples include requests from private individuals, corporations, and social organizations for removal of content they believed to be defamatory, revealing trade secrets, or otherwise asserting violations of privately held rights.

Reddit complied in whole or in part with 8 of these requests. Access was restricted in response to 6 requests, with content being removed 2 times.

In 2017, Reddit received 7,825 notifications of alleged copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), which resulted in 4,352 removals. This is an approximate increase of 138% over the 3,294 notifications received in 2016.

Reddit reviews each DMCA takedown notice carefully, and removes content where a valid report is received, as required by the law. Reddit considers whether the reported content may fall under an exception listed in the DMCA, such as “fair use,” and may ask for clarification that will assist in the review of the removal request.

As described in the Reddit user agreement, Reddit’s DMCA report form provides copyright owners with an efficient method of reporting allegedly infringing content that is consistent with the requirements under the DMCA (17 U.S.C. § 512).