The Chief Executive Officer of Reddit, has confessed to altering some of the comments that have been posted on one of the site's subreddits.
Steve Huffman, co-founder and current CEO of the social networking website, admitted that he edited some posts on the pro-Trump sub-Reddit, The_Donald.
"Yep. I messed with the "fuck u/spez" comments, replacing "spez" with r/the_donald mods for an hour. It's been a long week here trying to unwind the r/pizzagate stuff. As much as we try to maintain a good relationship with you all, it does get old getting called a pedophile constantly. As the CEO, I shouldn't play such games, and it's all fixed now. Our community team is pretty pissed at me, so I most assuredly won't do this again."
Huffman, whose Reddit username is Spez, edited the posts to look like commenters were hurling insults at The_Donald moderators instead of him. Huffman, himself, has been targeted by supposed Trump supporters after the controversial banning of the "Pizzagate" board.
The community was banned by the site because of "a violation of [our] content policy". Reddit moderators reasoned that the board was guilty of the "proliferation of personal and confidential information" of personalities that conspiracists believe are pedophiles.
The Pizzagate conspiracy insists that Hillary Clinton is involved in a child sex-trafficking ring which is supposed to be headquartered at the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Northwest Washington. Conspiracy theorists believe Clinton and people close to her run the pedophile ring.
The banning of the Reddit community was justified after some of those who are supposed to be involved with the conspiracy have been the subject of threats. The owner of the pizza place, James Alefantis, has received numerous threats to his life. He has asked the FBI and social media networks to help him clear his name and to prevent further proliferation of fake news.
Reddit does not ban conspiracy boards or other controversial communities. The company, which was one of the sites affected by the series of cyber attacks in late October, insists that "the concept of free speech is important, but completely unfettered free speech can cause harm to others and additionally silence others, which is what we'll continue to address".
