Reddit CEO on Trump Switcheroo: ‘I Abused My Power’

By Cathy Burke
NEWSMAX

Reddit’s chief executive and co-founder – under fire for secretly modifying user comments that were critical of the him on a pro-Donald Trump forum – said his plan to “give the bullies a hard time” backfired.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Steve Huffman confessed his turn-about that changed all mentions of his username in expletive-heavy posts with those of the pro-Trump group’s leaders was a mistake.

“I abused my power to give the bullies a hard time,” he told the Post.

The new skirmish in Reddit’s on-again-off-again war on posters came after Reddit shut down a subreddit group devoted to a debunked claim there there is a secret child sex-trafficking ring run by prominent Democrats. Reddit deleted that group for revealing people’s personal information.

Huffman told the Post nearly all of the abuse directed at him came from posters to r/The_Donald; since Huffman’s retaliatory move, the pro-Trump group has demanded his resignation.

“If The_Donald had done this to another Reddit employee, I would have banned them,” Huffman told the Post, adding he intended only to swap names for a few hours and then put things right again.

“What he did completely destroys the credibility of Reddit,” one user tagged UniatrixZeroOne wrote – releasing images of Slack conversations Thursday between Reddit moderators and Huffman about the altered posts.

And even users who do not support Trump criticized Huffman.

“I can’t stand the thought of Trump entering the White House, but I have to stand up to this,” another commenter wrote.

“It’s wrong and totally unprofessional. It’s going to zap any trust people have with the organization.”

Huffman told the Post his joke fell flat.

“I had my fun with them; they had their fun with me,” he said. “But we are not going to tolerate harassment for any others.”

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http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/reddit-ceo-Donald-Trump-comments/2016/11/27/id/760788/