From cord cutters
Unlicensed IPTV providers took another hit this week as Reddit banned a sub-Reddit known for being the hub for providers looking to promote their services.
Reddit shut down the /r/iptvresellers sub-Reddit for violating its policy against transactions involving prohibited goods or services, as first reported by Torrent Freak. While Reddit didn’t expand on specifics about why the hub was shut down, these are the categories of content that are prohibited, according to the policy.
Firearms, ammunition, explosives, legally controlled firearms parts or accessories (e.g., bump stock-type devices, silencers/suppressors, etc.), or 3D printing files to produce any of the aforementioned;
Drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, or any controlled substances (except advertisements placed in accordance with our advertising policy);
Paid services involving physical sexual contact;
Stolen goods;
Personal information;
Falsified official documents or currency
Fraudulent services
A second sub-Reddit popped up immediately after, called /r/iptvresellers2, but Reddit was quick to shut that down as well. Navigating to the page now shows a message saying “This subreddit was banned due to a violation of Reddit’s content policy against creating or repurposing a sub to reconstitute or serve the same objective as a previously banned or quarantined subreddit.”
Those posting on the group, along with advertising on Facebook and message boards, aren’t necessarily those running the sites selling subscriptions for thousands of channels for low prices. It’s the resellers of the services that are working on pulling in customers. As Torren Freak points out, some resellers will try to lure in customers with the lowest possible prices, while others will create websites to make the service look legitimate to justify higher prices.
The risk for resellers is authorities finding and taking down the service provider, like the pirate IPTV service with over 2 million customers that was shut down last week, effectively ending the businesses of the network of resellers.