Reddit CEO Huffman to hold forum to discuss objectionable content in the site's communities

The CEO of the Internet message board Reddit will be hosting a forum to discuss several sections on the popular site that are hosting disturbing and offensive content. This was announced in a post by the site's co-founder and current CEO, Steve Huffman.

Scheduled for Thursday, July 16^th at 1 pm Pacific, the forum, called a "Content Policy Update", addresses some of the issues that the site and community has found itself in, including the issue of free speech on the site and the removal by Reddit's administrators of several sub-communities, called subreddits, that are deemed to post sexist, racist, or generally objectionable content.

In the post, Huffman acknowledged that while the majority of content on Reddit is positive, there remains a "dark side", which means there are subreddits that are "reprehensible". Huffman said the company is not willing to have any obligation to support them.

"We also believe that some communities currently on the platform should not be here at all," he said as a justification for the upcoming discussion.

This move from the top level of Reddit's administration could be considered as a form of damage control after several recent incidents on the site.

On July 3, the moderators of several subreddits, including a few popular ones on the site, marked their pages as Private and only allowed moderators or approved submitters to access. This was in response to the sudden and abrupt dismissal of Reddit's Director of Communications, Victoria Taylor, who was in charge of coordinating and assisting personalities for the Ask Me Anything (AMA) question-and-answer subreddit.

Numerous protests and calls for the resignation of Reddit's Interim CEO Ellen Pao increased after the scandal. Pao stepped down from the post a week since the controversy erupted, and was replaced by Huffman. She, however, stayed on as a member of the board for the site.