“I co-founded Reddit 15 years ago to help people find community and a sense of belonging,” Ohanian said both in his tweet and video he posted online.
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian announced on Twitter on Friday that he is resigning from the Reddit board and also urged the board to offer his seat to a black candidate. Co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman said that he and the Reddit board will honour Ohanian’s request.
“Despite making significant progress over the years, we have to turn a mirror on ourselves and be willing to do the hard work of making sure we are living up to our values in our product and policies,” Huffman said.
The announcements come amid the nation-wide protests that have shaken America after the killing of George Floyd, an African-American man who succumbed to death after a police officer kneeled on his neck for over eight minutes.
“I co-founded Reddit 15 years ago to help people find community and a sense of belonging,” Ohanian said both in his tweet and video he posted online. “It is long overdue to do the right thing. I’m doing this for me, for my family, and for my country. I’m saying this as a father who needs to be able to answer his black daughter when she asks: ‘What did you do?’” He added.
“I believe resignation can actually be an act of leadership from people in power right now. To everyone fighting to fix our broken nation: do not stop,” he further said.
I've resigned as a member of the reddit board, I have urged them to fill my seat with a black candidate, + I will use future gains on my Reddit stock to serve the black community, chiefly to curb racial hate, and I’m starting with a pledge of $1M to @kaepernick7’s @yourrightscamp
— §AlexisOhanian 7️⃣7️⃣6️⃣ (@alexisohanian) June 5, 2020
Ohanian also informed that he’ll be using his gains in future from Reddit stocks to “serve the black community, chiefly to curb racial hate.”
Like other social media platforms and aggregators, Reddit has had its share of controversies for allowing racist and otherwise toxic content on its platform.
Huffman, in his post, wrote, “I want to take responsibility for the history of our policies over the years that got us here, and we still have work to do.”
“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,” he further added.
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