Ellen Pao, better known as ekjp on Reddit, the site she began helming in November of 2014 is already out of a job. Stepping in for outgoing CEO Yishan Wong, Ellen became the “whipping boy” by Redditors for a series of controversial moves including the shuttering of Fat People Hate and other subreddits — moves that were seen as detrimental to free speech.
Reddit just posted news of her resignation on their r/announcements subreddit today and announced that old site runner Steve Huffman, a co-founder of Reddit with Alexis Ohanian and the original CEO, was back.
Though Ellen apologized recently for the lack of communication recently in regards to site changes — especially with regard to the controversial firing of Victoria Taylor, it seemed to be too little too late for the Reddit crowd.
Steve Huffman
A petition surfaced calling for her resignation and apparently it was popular enough to have its desired effect.
Yishan Wong even went on the site in previous days to attempt to take responsibility for actions that she was blamed for. Ultimately, the Redditors needed a sacrifice though and they pegged Ellen for the task.
We’ll see if the the return to the “original team” is a return to original values. Will sites that were shuttered return as well? I guess we’ll find out.
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