Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of the Reddit chat platform, resigned on June 5 from the company's board of directors and asked that a black candidate replace him. "It was time to do the right thing", he said in a video posted on Twitter, while the United States is experiencing a wave of mobilization against racism after the death of George Floyd, asphyxiated by a white police officer.
The entrepreneur added that his future dividends on Reddit shares would be used for the benefit of the black community, in particular for "Fight racial hatred". He explains that he made this decision as " dad ", to one day be able to answer the question of his daughter (mixed race, which he had with his wife Serena Williams), when she will ask him: "And you, what did you do? "
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Steve Huffman, co-founder and current CEO of Reddit, said in response that the group would honor Alexis Ohanian's request to replace him with a black person, and that his teams were working on "Change the rules on content that expresses explicit hatred".
This in a context where Reddit's inaction regarding messages posted in certain sub-forums was highlighted last week by his former CEO Ellen Pao. " You should have closed r / The_Donald instead of helping him spread his hatred, racism and violence. Much of what is happening today is your responsibility. "wrote Mme Pao in response to an open letter posted by Reddit in support of the Black Lives Matter movement on 1er June.
Racist sub-forums
Reddit, a majority English-speaking platform, is one of the largest discussion forums in the world. Its moderation is very largely entrusted to the administrators of its multiple sub-forums: each user is free to create one on the subject of their choice. The site has been criticized several times for having allowed communities to flourish that publish racist, false or violent content. In 2015, the site had, after long hesitation, finally closed the r / CoonTown sub-forum: a large group which mainly published racist content towards blacks.
Sub-forum closings have remained exceptional on Reddit, which since its inception has championed a very permissive approach to freedom of expression. In 2016, the r / The_Donald sub-forum, a gathering point for supporters of Donald Trump, had established itself as an important element of the American presidential campaign online, and many racist messages and disinformation campaigns were very regularly there published. A year ago, this sub-forum was finally placed "in quarantine": it remains accessible, but its messages no longer go back to the Reddit home page, and some of its functionality is limited.
