Reddit’s Pao resigns after “sickening comments”
After an eight month reign, over which she brought “focus to chaos”, Reddit’s interim chief executive Ellen Pao has resigned by mutual consent
A victim of trolling? Reddit's former CEO Ellen Pao resigned after 200,000 signed a petition calling for her to step down
Reddit has finally bowed to the great and growing pressure on Ellen Pao and announced that the now-former chief executive has resigned by mutual consent – though reportedly not because of the recent uproar, according to the site. Having only last year taken to the top job, Pao is to make way for Steve Huffman, founder and original Reddit CEO.
[I]t was sickening to see some of the things redditors wrote
about Ellen
“We are thankful for Ellen’s many contributions to reddit and the technology industry generally,” said Reddit Board member Sam Altman in a post. “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.”
Pao’s eight-month term in charge brought much in the way of controversy. Recently, the sacking of the site’s director of talent Victoria Taylor riled the site’s users, who responded by shutting down almost 10,000 discussion boards in protest. Worse was a Change.org petition calling for Pao to step down, which, as of the time of her resignation, had garnered over 200,000 signatures on the basis that “a vast majority of the Reddit community believes that Pao, “a manipulative individual who will sue her way to the top”, has overstepped her boundaries and fears that she will run Reddit into the ground.”
Altman expanded on the site’s commitment to moderators moving forwards, by introducing better moderation tools, improved communication and more clarity about the company’s content policy. The statement also condemned the opinions held by certain segments of the Reddit community, and said, “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.”
Three other victims of trolling
Emily Thornberry, MP
Last year, the Labour MP upset the Twitter community after posting a photograph of a house in Rochester kitted out with St George’s flags. Many accused her of snobbery, and she was eventually forced to resign.
Brendan Eich, Mozilla former chief executive
In 2004, workers at Mozilla discovered Eich had donated to a political campaign to limit marriage to something that is only between man and woman. So outraged were his colleagues that the executive felt he had no choice by to resign.
Sir Tim Hunt, scientist
Earlier this year, the internet community caught wind of comments Nobel Prize winner, Sir Tim Hunt, had made about female scientists in a talk. Hunt said: ‘Three things happen when girls are in the lab – you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them, they cry.’ The scientist eventually resigned from his university post after the comments were heavily circulated.
