Reddit to honor Ohanian's request to appoint Black director, and address anti-Black hate
Founder to leave Reddit, saying resignation can be act of leadership'
Reddit promises to update content moderation policies to explicitly address hate" within weeks
Earlier today, we told you that Reddit's Alexis Ohanian was resigning from the Reddit board, asked the company to fill his seat with a Black candidate, and said he'd donate further proceeds from Reddit to anti-racism causes beginning with a $1M pledge to Colin Kaepernick's Know Your Rights Camp."
Now, Reddit has responded.
Reddit community demanding change in hate speech policy. Exciting times.https://t.co/2dt5JB4avE
- Alexis Ohanian Sr.
(@alexisohanian) June 5, 2020
Reports Hannah Murphy at the Financial Times:
In a lengthy statement later on Friday, Steve Huffman, Reddit's chief executive, said that the company would honour" the request by Mr Ohanian that his successor be a black candidate.
He added the company would update its content moderation policies to explicitly address hate", adding that the timeline would be weeks, not months" if moderators of individual forums engage in the process.
[Our] current policy lists only what you cannot do, articulates none of the values behind the rules, and does not explicitly take a stance on hate or racism," he said. We will update our content policy to include a vision for Reddit and its communities to aspire to, a statement on hate, the context for the rules, and a principle that Reddit isn't to be used as a weapon."
Read more:
Reddit pledges to appoint black director after Ohanian quits
[ft.com]
I am obligated to call you out: You should have shut down the_donald instead of amplifying it and its hate, racism, and violence. So much of what is happening now lies at your feet. You don't get to say BLM when reddit nurtures and monetizes white supremacy and hate all day long https://t.co/VN5XCiYp5g
- Ellen K. Pao (@ekp) June 2, 2020
It disrespects everyone who have been harassed, doxed, gaslighted, brigaded, and otherwise mistreated if we pretend there was no harm. Enough people are praising the move; someone needs to acknowledge the people who have been discounted and ignored
- Ellen K. Pao (@ekp) June 5, 2020
Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian says he's resigning from the company's board of directors and wants a black candidate to take his seat on what has been an all-white, four-person board.
I'm doing this for myself, for my family, and for my country." https://t.co/o7No2l3I5d
- WIRED (@WIRED) June 5, 2020
Read Steve's update to this week's open letter, shared today with the Reddit community. https://t.co/lcLHMSrfQX
- Reddit (@reddit) June 5, 2020
[via techmeme]