Reddit Names Seibel to Board After Ohanian’s Call for Black Candidate

Social community corporate Reddit on Wednesday named project capital investor Michael Seibel to its board, days after co-founder and previous director Alexis Ohanian resigned and known as for the corporate to interchange him with a black candidate.

Ohanian’s resignation came because the demise of George Floyd in police custody induced well-liked protests in opposition to racism and police brutality, whilst additionally reigniting the controversy of range in The us’s company boardrooms and content material moderation practices on social media.

Responding to Ohanian’s request, Leader Government Officer Steve Huffman mentioned on Friday “the unacceptable hole” between Reddit’s content material coverage and values has diminished the corporate’s effectiveness in fighting hate and racism, and bogged down its reaction to issues.

“This present coverage lists best what you can’t do, articulates not one of the values in the back of the principles, and does now not explicitly take a stance on hate or racism.”

Huffman additionally mentioned Reddit will have to have moved quicker to limit get right of entry to to r/The_Donald, a big discussion board for supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump that Reddit ‘quarantined’ closing yr mentioning threats of violence in opposition to police and public officers.

Seibel is also the CEO of Y Combinator, a Silicon Valley incubator of startups, whose notable early investments come with Airbnb, DoorDash, Dropbox, and Reddit itself in 2005.

© Thomson Reuters 2020