Embattled reddit CEO Ellen Pao has stepped down from her position at the privately held company, effectively immediately. A spokesperson for reddit indicated that the separation was mutually agreed upon and that Pao will be replaced by original reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman. According to the New York Times, Pao will continue to advise reddit’s board until the end of the year. In an interview with Re/code’s Kara Swisher, Pao is quoted as saying that her departure stems from a disagreement with reddit’s board of directors on the direction reddit should go. “They had a more aggressive view than I did,” said Pao. The move comes one week after a massive user-led protest left large swaths of the site inaccessible to the public. The protest was sparked by the firing of Victoria Taylor , a reddit employee who facilitated the site’s “Ask Me Anything” question-and-answer chats (called “AMAs”). Volunteer moderators of the /r/IAmA subreddit took the discussion area offline to try to figure out a way forward without Taylor’s help, characterizing Taylor’s dismissal as the latest in a long string of poorly communicated moves by reddit’s administrators. Other subreddit moderators quickly followed suit in a show of solidarity, and by last Thursday evening, one-third of the site’s “default” subreddits were inaccessible. Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Breaking: Ellen Pao steps down as reddit CEO
