Reddit
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Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has vowed to crack down on "poorly behaving communities" including the "toxic users" of the controversial subreddit dedicated to President-elect Donald Trump.

Reddit has installed a ban on "stickied" posts in the 'r/the_donald' community from appearing on the 'r/all' page, which is the site's latest move to block users that are "devoted to antagonizing the broader Reddit community".

"The United States is more divided than ever, and we see that tension within Reddit itself," wrote Huffman on the discussion site.


"The community that was formed in support of President-elect Donald Trump organized and grew rapidly, but within it were users that devoted themselves to antagonizing the broader Reddit community," he continued.

Furthermore, the co-founder admitted the company's reliance on moderators to "curb bad behaviors" has not been "wholly effective". As a result, Reddit will now be punishing "the most toxic users" in the form of warnings, timeouts and permanent bans.

"We will continue taking on the most troublesome users and, going forward, if we do not see the situation improve, we will continue to take privileges from communities whose users continually cross the line - up to an outright ban," said Huffman.

While 'r/all' is not Reddit's front page it is, as Huffman describes it, "a popular listing that our most engaged users frequent, including myself."

Huffman began the notice by, once again, apologizing for the internet storm he created on Thanksgiving by modifying insulting posts within the 'r/the_donald' community page that were directed at him.

"I am sorry: I am sorry for compromising the trust you all have in Reddit, and I am sorry to those that I created work and stress for, particularly over the holidays," he reiterated.


Comment: Huffman responded by posting the following comment confirming the modifications and adding that he had personally altered posts to change the comment tags - much to his team's displeasure:
"Hey Everyone,

"Yep. I messed with the 'f**k u/spez' comments, replacing 'spez' with r/the_donaldmods for about an hour. It's been a long week here trying to unwind the r/pizzagatestuff. As much as we try to maintain a good relationship with you all, it does get old getting called a pedophile constantly. As the CEO, I shouldn't play such games, and it's all fixed now. Our community team is pretty pissed at me, so I most assuredly won't do this again.
"F**k u/spez."
Following the comment, users blasted Huffman for having crushed the credibility of Reddit.

"This calls into question all of reddit's security protocols. How many other reddit employees have root level access to the database, and are able to make any change without consulting with another employee? We don't know. That means there could be any number of rogue employees running around and shadow editing comments, shadow banning people, etc., and we would have no way to prove it," one user posted.


The CEO said he was attempting to "troll the trolls" by redirecting the posts to Reddit moderators.

"I honestly thought I might find some common ground with that community by meeting them on their level. It did not go as planned. I restored the original comments after less than an hour, and explained what I did," wrote Huffman.

Huffman went on to say he has "resisted" outright banning the community despite "many" requests to do so, because: "If there is anything about this election that we have learned, it is that there are communities that feel alienated and just want to be heard, and Reddit has always been a place where those voices can be heard."