Reddit's Ellen Pao out as CEO after thousands of users called for her firing

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Ellen Pao has stepped down as CEO of Reddit
The move comes eight days after the dismissal of popular Reddit staffer Victoria Taylor, who ran the Ask Me Anything feature
A petition calling for Pao's firing after Taylor was let go received over 200,000 signatures
Reddit users also shut down a section of the site in response to Taylor losing her job
Pao is being replaced by former CEO Steve Huffman

By Chris Spargo For Dailymail.com and Associated Press

Published: 18:17 EST, 10 July 2015 | Updated: 23:57 EST, 10 July 2015

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Reddit announced Friday that interim CEO Ellen Pao had resigned from the company and that co-founder Steve Huffman had been reinstated as CEO.

The news comes as the freewheeling online discussion forum and news site - which says it had 164 million unique visitors last month - has been rocked by unrest recently.

Most notably, the July 2 firing of a Reddit staffer who was popular with the volunteers that help the site function.

The employee, Victoria Taylor, helped run the site's popular Ask Me Anything feature, where Reddit users submit questions to celebrities and other notable people. President Barack Obama, for example, has answered questions on that forum.

Some volunteer moderators protested her ouster by shutting down sections of the site, and a petition demanding that Pao be fire received over 200,000 signatures.

Even singer Lorde weighed in, tweeting; 'idc who calls the shots at reddit, they should've known rule #1 in their pr handbook was always VICTORIA STAYS.'

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Done: Ellen Pao (above) has stepped down as CEO of Reddit

Pao spoke with Kara Swisher of re/code after the news was announced, saying it was a 'mutual decision' for her to step down as the board wanted to move in a more 'aggressive' direction in terms of growth.

Reddit board member and Y Combinator head Sam Altman confirmed to Swisher that Pao was not fired.

Reddit CEO Ellen Pao loses Silicon Valley gender bias case

Reddit also came under fire with users earlier this year when they announced anti-harassment guidelines this year and in June it banned a few groups for violating those rules.

Reddit is known for an almost-anything goes style, but leadership said in May that it was unhappy with harassment on its site and survey data showed its users were also upset about the behavior.

A statement posted on Reddit by Altman said that Pao, who became interim CEO in November, resigned from Reddit by mutual agreement and will continue to advise the board for the rest of 2015.

Backlash: Pao's decision comes eight days after the dismissal of popular Reddit staffer Victoria Taylor (seen above earlier this week), who ran the Ask Me Anything feature

Victoria Taylor on what it's like working at Reddit in 2013

Altman also says Reddit moderators should have better tools and communication from the company.

He said Reddit accepts disagreements, but said the site must exercise compassion if it wants to be a great community and said some of the things Reddit users wrote about Pao were 'sickening.'

'Disagreements are fine. Death threats are not, are not covered under free speech, and will continue to get offending users banned,' Altman wrote.

Huffman co-founded Reddit in 2005 with Alexis Ohanian. Conde Nast acquired Reddit the following year, and both Huffman and Ohanian left the company in October 2009.

Ohanian returned as San Francisco-based Reddit's executive chairman in November.

Before becoming Reddit's CEO, Pao had worked for a storied Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

She lost a high-profile gender discrimination lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins in March that brought up issues of the gender imbalance and difficulties faced by women working in Silicon Valley.

REDDIT STATEMENT ABOUT ELLEN PAO STEPPING DOWN

Ellen Pao resigned from reddit today by mutual agreement. I’m delighted to announce that Steve Huffman, founder and the original reddit CEO, is returning as CEO.

We are thankful for Ellen’s many contributions to reddit and the technology industry generally. She brought focus to chaos, recruited a world-class team of executives, and drove growth. She brought a face to reddit that changed perceptions, and is a pioneer for women in the tech industry. She will remain as an advisor to the board through the end of 2015. I look forward to seeing the great things she does beyond that.

We’re very happy to have Steve back. Product and community are the two legs of reddit, and the board was very focused on finding a candidate who excels at both (truthfully, community is harder), which Steve does. He has the added bonus of being a founder with ten years of reddit history in his head. Steve is rejoining Alexis, who will work alongside Steve with the new title of “cofounder.”

A few other points. Mods, you are what makes reddit great. The reddit team, now with Steve, wants to do more for you. You deserve better moderation tools and better communication from the admins.

Second, redditors, you deserve clarity about what the content policy of reddit is going to be. The team will create guidelines to both preserve the integrity of reddit and to maintain reddit as the place where the most open and honest conversations with the entire world can happen.

Third, as a redditor, I’m particularly happy that Steve is so passionate about mobile. I’m very excited to use reddit more on my phone.

As a closing note, it was sickening to see some of the things redditors wrote about Ellen. The reduction in compassion that happens when we’re all behind computer screens is not good for the world. People are still people even if there is Internet between you.

If the reddit community cannot learn to balance authenticity and compassion, it may be a great website but it will never be a truly great community. Steve’s great challenge as CEO will be continuing the work Ellen started to drive this forward.