<\/p>\n
By Cathy Burke
\nNEWSMAX<\/p>\n
Reddit’s chief executive and co-founder \u2013 under fire for secretly modifying user comments<\/strong><\/a> that were critical of the him on a pro-Donald Trump forum \u2013 said his plan to “give the bullies a hard time” backfired.<\/p>\n In an interview with the Washington Post<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0Steve 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.<\/p>\n “I abused my power to give the bullies a hard time,” he told the Post.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n “If The_Donald had done this\u00a0to 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.<\/p>\n “What he did completely destroys the credibility of Reddit,” one user tagged UniatrixZeroOne wrote<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 releasing images of Slack conversations Thursday between Reddit moderators and Huffman about the altered posts.<\/p>\n And even users who do not support Trump criticized Huffman.<\/p>\n “I can’t stand the thought of Trump entering the White House, but I have to stand up to this,” another commenter wrote<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n “It’s wrong and totally unprofessional. It’s going to zap any trust people have with the organization.”<\/p>\n Huffman told the Post his joke fell flat.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n