Reddit CEO tells user, “we are not the thought police,” then suspends that user

Enlarge / Steve Huffman, cofounder and chief executive officer of Reddit Inc., listens during a Bloomberg Technology television interview in San Francisco in 2017. (credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A Reddit user has found himself at the end of a week-long suspension-and from the look of his account, it might have come because he publicly shared a "direct message" exchange with Reddit CEO Steve "spez" Huffman over the platform's handling of hate speech.

Reddit has confirmed to Ars Technica that Huffman's conversation, as posted by user "whatllmyusernamebe" on Sunday, is legitimate. The conversation begins with Huffman responding to the question, "Why do you admins not just ban hate speech?"

spez: Our violent speech policy is effectively that.

whatll: I'd argue that hate speech should be banned with its own rule, separate from the violence policy. But thank you for replying.

spez: Hate speech is difficult to define. There's a reason why it's not really done. Additionally, we are not the thought police. It's not the role of a private company to decide what people can and cannot say.

whatll: But it *is* the role of a private company to decide what people can and cannot say *on [its] own platform*.

spez: I know what you're asking, but it's a nearly impossible precedent to uphold. It's impossible to enforce consistently.

When reached for comment, a Reddit representative declined to confirm whether the user's suspension was related to the sharing of this direct-message history. Ars Technica was able to reach the user, who goes by the name Zachary Swanson, on Monday. Swanson shared a screencap with Ars of the reason Reddit gave for suspending his account for seven days: "for harassment" was the listed cause, with no further clarification.

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