Another day, another miniature rebellion going down on Reddit. The company’s decision to ban a handful of offensive sub-reddits had many users complaining that the move went against the website’s strong free-speech policy. However, whereas that decision caused regular users to start rebelling, the company’s decision to fire Victoria Taylor has moderators up in arms, with some of Reddit’s most popular sub-reddits being closed in protest.
If you tried to visit r/IAmA (one of Reddit’s biggest subs) recently, you were probably greeted by the image above. And if you’ve been absolutely anywhere else on the site at all in the past few hours, you probably noticed that everyone is flipping their collective shit over speculation that Victoria Taylor, the high-profile coordinator that kept IAmA afloat, was suddenly and mysteriously fired. Also, something about Jesse Jackson. In addition to being one of the internet’s premier incubators for racism and bigotry of all sorts, Reddit is also perhaps best known for its “AmAs”—in which people with varying degrees of celebrity will come and answer questions for the masses to see. Coordinating and verifying all those celebrities takes a massive amount of work, which is why Victoria Taylor, the site’s Director of Talent, seems to have been so immensely beloved by the site’s many, voluntary moderators—she was good. Apparently, where other Reddit “admins” (read: actual, paid Reddit employees) usually brush off moderators’ questions and concerns, Taylor seemed to have a reputation for actually giving a shit.
