Reddit has announced a new privacy policy

Reddit has announced that its users are no longer allowed to post nude pictures without consent in the wake of the widespread celebrity leaks last year.

On Tuesday, the online messaging board said it was tightening its privacy policy to prevent users posting nude photos or videos or those of people engaged in sex acts without permission.

The New York Times reports that this is likely to upset some users who champion the site for its "free-wheeling" tradition of user-generated content free from censorship.

Reddit came under fire last year after hundreds of photos of celebrities - including the likes of Jennifer Lawrence (above), Kaley Cuoco and Ariana Grande - were hacked and subsequently distributed on the site.

Time magazine reports that Reddit removed the images but explained that was because they may have been in breach of copyright or depicted people who were under-age and not because of any privacy violation.

In an interview with the New York Times, Reddit's co-founder Alexis Ohanian said the site wants to dedicate itself to creating a "long-lasting, sustainable" business model and that the new privacy policy is part of adapting to the evolution of technology, particularly cloud-based storage.

I really want to believe that as we enter the next 10 years of Reddit life, essentially the most trafficked media site on the internet, the opportunity here to set a standard for respecting the privacy of our users.

• Alexis Ohanian, Reddit co-founder and executive chairman

Anyone who wants a photograph taken down from the site should email contact@reddit.com and send the relevant URL.

More: Jennifer Lawrence has this to say about people who looked at those photos