Interim Reddit CEO backs away from free speech ethos with new content policy
Interim Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has sought to distance the social news and entertainment platform from the free speech ethos which made it popular, by declaring that they were under no obligation to provide a platform for those with ‘reprehensible’ views.
Addressing users directly on the site Huffman wrote: “The overwhelming majority of content on Reddit comes from wonderful, creative, funny, smart, and silly communities. That is what makes Reddit great. There is also a dark side, communities whose purpose is reprehensible, and we don’t have any obligation to support them.
“Neither Alexis Ohanian nor I created Reddit to be a bastion of free speech.”
Thus far Reddit has gone out of its way to protect users with more dubious tastes and views ranging from racism and rape to collections of corpse images – although those found to be breaking the law by posting legally protected data or child abuse images have been punished.
Faced with a growing backlash and accusations of censorship however Huffman has been forced to publish a new content policy, outlining where the boundary with unacceptability lies for the first time, as well as the tools necessary to enforce it.
Huffman’s stance follows a period of open warfare within the Reddit community; with lead investor Sam Altman’s criticism of the site’s mobile strategy (or lack thereof) adding to its woes.