Ellen Pao has stepped down from her position as interim Chief Executive Officer at Reddit, the self-proclaimed “front page of the internet”.
Pao said that her stepping down was a “mutual decision” between herself and Reddit, although she has faced a cacophony of calls for her resignation in the past week.
That’s largely due to the public outcry over this month’s firing of ex-Reddit AMA admin Victoria Taylor, a much-loved staffer at the site.
In response to Taylor’s dismissal, moderators set some of the most popular subreddits to “private”, making them inaccessible.
Pao subsequently apologised, saying the Reddit management “screwed up”, and has now submitted a resignation letter.
“Ultimately, the board asked me to demonstrate higher user growth in the next six months than I believe I can deliver while maintaining Reddit’s core principles,” explains Pao, in the letter.
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She goes on to say that in her eight months as Reddit’s interim CEO, she’s “seen the good, the bad, and the ugly” on the site.
“I just want to remind everyone that I am just another human;
She continues: “Thank you to all the users who shared your excitement about Reddit and what we’ve done and for encouraging everyone to remember the human. And thank you for making my time here at Reddit an amazing learning experience.”
Pao is set to be replaced by Steve Huffman, username /u/spez, who was one of Reddit’s original co-founders.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.