Few hours ago, the Co-founder of Reddit, Alexis Ohanian took to Twitter to announce his resignation as a member of Reddit’s board of directors today. According to Alexis, his resignation is a way of protesting against racial injustice continue to rage across the US in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by police. He described his resignation as the right thing to do.
In his tweet, Alexis advised the company to hire a black candidate in his stead and promising his future gains on Reddit stock to serve the black community.
In his words;
“I co-founded @reddit 15 years ago to help people find community and a sense of belonging.
It is long overdue to do the right thing. I’m doing this for me, for my family, and for my country.
I’m saying this as a father who needs to be able to answer his black daughter when she asks: “What did you do?”
I’ve resigned as a member of the reddit board, I have urged them to fill my seat with a black candidate, + I will use future gains on my Reddit stock to serve the black community, chiefly to curb racial hate, and I’m starting with a pledge of $1M to @kaepernick7’s @yourrightscamp
I believe resignation can actually be an act of leadership from people in power right now. To everyone fighting to fix our broken nation: do not stop.”
The move comes just two days after a number of popular subreddits went private or, in some cases, banned new posts to protest the company’s hate speech policies. Some moderators of some of the site’s largest communities specifically called out Ohanian’s co-founder, current CEO Steve Huffman, for failing to take action against racism and some of the site’s most virulent communities like r/The_Donald, its pro-Trump subreddit.
