A notorious Reddit subcategory, /r/thefappening, that was used to spread leaked private and intimate photos of female celebrities has finally been banned from Reddit.

Reddit said it " ... deplore[s] the theft of these images" and that it won't tolerate the widespread distribution of these photos. The social entertainment site also said its policies will remain intact despite the incident.

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Guests and Redditors, the nickname for site's registered users, will now be faced with a message that says "this subreddit has been banned."

"The Fappening" subcategory was the online venue that posed as the dumping ground for leaked private pictures of celebrities that were placed online on Aug. 31.

In a weird move, users in the subreddit (the term for subcategories present on the site)  began raising funds for the Prostate Cancer Foundation "in honor of Jennifer Lawrence, one of the artists whose privacy was breached."

forum moderators began fussing over the photos when Olympic athlete McKayla Maroney, who is also in the list of affected celebrities, through her lawyers said some of her photos were taken when she was still a minor.

Letting her pictures remain on the site could end in charges of possessing and distributing child pornography.

Reddit's administrators allegedly warned moderators of the possible presence of illegal content.

Although "The Fappening" subreddit is now down, the reason why Reddit waited to ban it remains unclear.

Reddit said it quickly removed the offending files and links to the content on its servers as soon as it received Digital Millennium Copyright Act requests from owners of the images.

" Nevertheless, Reddit's platform is structurally based on the ability for people to distribute, promote, and highlight textual materials as well as links to images and other media," the site said in a blog post.

"We understand the harm that misusing our site does to the victims of this theft, and we deeply sympathize."

TagsReddit, The Fappening, Leak, photos, pictures, celebrity, celebrity news, leaked celebrity photos