On Wednesday, reddit said that it would actively ban subreddits that users reported as being harassing in nature. At the same time, reddit administrators Jessica Moreno, head of community and support; Ellen Pao, interim CEO; and Alexis Ohanian, one of the founders of reddit, said that they had shut down five subreddits that had been egregiously flouting the sites new rules against harassment.
This new decision has some reddit users seething. A small number have created offensive subreddits targeting Pao, with highly-upvoted posts that seem to fall definitively into reddit's previously-stated rules against harassment. But Pao is a high-profile and controversial figure, especially in the aftermath of her unsuccessful jury trial against former employer Kleiner Perkins for gender discrimination. Removing these subreddits could be seen as removing purposely offensive protest, the Washington Post notes.
The company has not moved to ban any of the subreddits targeting Pao, the two most prominent of which have over 5,000 subscribers. (While 5,000 subscribers isn't a lot, reddit administrators said on Wednesday that four of the five subreddits they banned had fewer than 5,000 subscribers.) The first, r/PaoYongYang, says it exists to “only post things that compare Ellen Pao to North Korea, or other fascist dictatorships.” The other, r/PaoMustResign, lists a link to a petition to oust Pao as interim CEO. Dozens of less-populated subreddits exist directing similar vitriol at the CEO.
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