An unknown DMCA notice sent to a subreddit led a short and smart digital revolt and resulted in community winning over big companies and their rules. A Reddit group/forum titled r/jailbreak has voluntarily locked out itself for a while and reopened only after welcomed by Reddit admins.
The group, r/jailbreak posts several jailbreaking tools for iOS platforms. It even accepts any tutorials or tweaks performed by anyone to be posted in threads. The group is actively managed and is having more than 462k followers! With Checkra1n, Chimera, and Unc0ver as tools, this community posted guidelines for jailbreaking Apple’s iOS 12, iOS/iPad OS 13 and tvOS.
The Unfair Takedown
The story of Reddit admins removing 5 of the group’s posts without any reason has sprung unjust feelings in the community, including the moderators. While asked for details, they’ve responded that it was because of a DMCA they received, they did so. But Admins haven’t revealed any further details of who has filed it.
This led the group’s moderators going stubborn and locking down the group until they receive any clear explanation from admins. They have strongly believed to be doing nothing bad. As if done, admins should’ve taken down the entire subreddit even without a warning.
Unlike Twitter and Google, Reddit doesn’t share its DMCA notices with Lumen Database, which maintains the internet’s digital copyrights complaints. If did, more details of who’ve complained would be revealed.
The only thing the community does is about posting tools for jailbreaking. While jailbreaking is illegal and a choice. Though it gives maximum freedom to customize the device’s hardware, a user will be warned several times before jailbreaking the device. As it will revoke the warranty for interfering with the device’s capabilities. Moreover, if not done rightly, it can turn the phone into a brick of no use.
Blaming Apple!
Apple has earlier used DMCA notice to pull down a tweet. A company named Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, acting on behalf of Apple has sent a DMCA notice to Twitter asking it to remove a tweet from an iOS hacker @s1guza. He tweeted a decryption key as
“iPhone11,8 17C5053a sepi 9f974f1788e615700fec73006cc2e6b533b0c6c2b8cf653bdbd347bc1897bdd66b11815f036e94c951250c4dda916c00”
This was removed right after the notice and reinstituted after a while. Surprisingly, there were no reasons told for doing so.
With this act, fans eventually blamed that Apple could be the one filed for DMCA again forum. Moderators have posted a final message before locking down as,
“Locking down the subreddit to prevent new threads is one of the ‘standard’ responses moderators take to show the admins that the mod team isn’t playing and that they are serious and ready to remedy the issue.”
Reborn And Open
After all, the admins of Reddit have finally responded and welcomed moderators to function as usual. Though the reasons we’re still a mystery, the revolting act of moderators and community is appreciated. The community is now open to join.
Here you go: r/jailbreak
