The new Reddit CEO is also down with moderating content

"Some communities currently on the platform should not be here at all," Steve Huffman said

Sure, Ellen Pao's reign as CEO of Reddit essentially ended the moment that Victoria Taylor was fired (no matter if Pao was the person behind that decision or not). Trouble, however, had been brewing long before that, especially when Pao instituted an anti-harrassment policy on the site, which many saw as her hindering their free speech.

Well, now that she's gone, and Steve Huffman, founder and the original Reddit CEO, back in his old job, everything will go back to the way it was, right?

Nope. Turns out Huffman is just as happy to regulate content on the site, which he mae perfectly clear in a post he put up on Reddit on Tuesday. 

"There has been a lot of discussion lately —on reddit, in the news, and here internally— about reddit’s policy on the more offensive and obscene content on our platform. Our top priority at reddit is to develop a comprehensive Content Policy and the tools to enforce it," he wrote.

While he notes that the "overwhelming majority of content" on the site is positive and that it "comes from wonderful, creative, funny, smart, and silly communities," that is not the same for everything that gets put up.

"There is also a dark side, communities whose purpose is reprehensible, and we don’t have any obligation to support them. And we also believe that some communities currently on the platform should not be here at all," he wrote.

This next sentence, in particular, is making redditor's head explode: "Neither Alexis nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech, but rather as a place where open and honest discussion can happen."

In response to that, numerous commentors have already been posting links and quotes that completely dispute that notion. That includes an interview that Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian did with Forbes in 2012, in which he specificially used the words that Huffman now says they never meant.

Ohanion was asked what he founding fathers would have thought of Reddit. His response: “A bastion of free speech on the World Wide Web? I bet they would like it."

In another post, also put up three years ago, in which Reddit issued a change in policy to ban child pornography, it also addressed the issue of going after other, non-illegal content.

"We understand that this might make some of you worried about the slippery slope from banning one specific type of content to banning other types of content. We're concerned about that too, and do not make this policy change lightly or without careful deliberation," the company said at the time.

"We will tirelessly defend the right to freely share information on reddit in any way we can, even if it is offensive or discusses something that may be illegal."

Now, Reddit's tune has changed quite a bit, with Huffman calling the issue of what can, and cannot, be said on the site "very complicated."

"It’s something we’ve been thinking about for quite some time. We haven’t had the tools to enforce policy, but now we’re building those tools and reevaluating our policy."

Here's the rub: the idea of being free and open and letting everyone say what they want is all well and good, but only up to a point. Eventually that kind of freedom is going to become exclusionary; the masses will avoid the site if they don't feel safe. In October of last year Reddit raised $50 million in a Series B round of funding, from investors that included Andreesen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Peter Thiel and Ron Conway.

Try telling those people, who want a return on investment, that it's more important that the site be open and free, rather than trying to attract as many people as possible. Reddit had a choice: it was either going to be niche and free, or it was going to be big and exlusionary. The company made its choice, and now it is dealing with the consequences.

(Image source: affordablehousinginstitute.org)