Reddit has appointed Michael Seibel to its board of directors. Michael Seibel who is the CEO of Y Combinator also co-founded the live streaming company Justin.tv before it transformed into Twitch.
Justin.tv, just like Reddit, were early benefactors of Y Combinator seed money through the accelerator’s startup fund.
Seibel is taking over from co-founder and board member Alexis Ohanian, who stepped down from the company’s board of directors last week and asked to be replaced by a black candidate. Seibel was Y Combinator’s first black partner before becoming CEO, and he has supported several initiatives to increase diversity in the tech industry, including BlackTech4BlackLives and Black Tech Weekend.
Seibel in a statement said, “I want to thank Steve, Alexis, and the entire Reddit board for this opportunity. I’ve known Steve and Alexis since 2007 and have been a Reddit user ever since.
“Over this period I’ve watched Reddit become part of the core fabric of the internet and I’m excited to help provide advice and guidance as Reddit continues to grow and tackle the challenges of bringing community and belonging to a broader audience.”
Ohanian stepped down from Reddit, where he was a board member but not involved in day-to-day operations, amid a broader conversation about the platform’s stance on racism and hate speech and ways to advance diversity and combat racial injustice in the tech industry. The conversation began following Reddit CEO Steve Huffman’s post addressing the killing of George Floyd and the ongoing protests against police brutality and racism, in which the chief executive said the Reddit community does “not tolerate hate, racism, and violence.”
The post didn’t go down too well with former CEO Ellen Pao, who criticized Huffman’s words as hypocritical.
“So much of what is happening now lies at your feet,” Pao said of Huffman’s failure to ban hate speech and moderate or remove its more toxic communities. “You don’t get to say BLM when Reddit nurtures and monetizes white supremacy and hate all day long.”
Some subreddits went into dark mode earlier in the week to pay respect to Floyd and further protest Reddit’s soft handling of racism. Many moderators of prominent subreddits echoed Reddit’s handling of racism and castigated Huffman for failing to take action against hateful communities.
Ohanian didn’t comment on his co-founder’s tenure upon departing from the board. But he did say that leaving the board “is long overdue to do the right thing.” He went on to say he would use his future gains on Reddit stock “to serve the black community, chiefly to curb racial hate,” and that he was donating $1 million to former NFL player and activist Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Camp education organization.
Huffman on his part responded to the criticisms late last week. He said, “Earlier this week, I wrote an email to our company addressing this crisis and a few ways Reddit will respond. When we shared it, many of the responses said something like, ‘How can a company that has faced racism from users on its own platform over the years credibly take such a position?’ Huffman said.
“These questions, which I know are coming from a place of real pain and which I take to heart, are really a statement: There is an unacceptable gap between our beliefs as people and a company, and what you see in our content policy.”
He however assured that Reddit plans to take steps in the coming months after gathering moderator feedback.
