The former CEO of Reddit is leaking the company’s dirty secrets

Former Reddit CEO Yishan Wong is feeling salty about his former employer, and he’s letting the world know it. In the wake of Ellen Pao’s resignation last Friday, Wong accused co-founder Alexis Ohanian of planning controversial changes to the site and then throwing Pao under the bus when Reddit took heat for them. And now Wong is airing more of the company’s secrets — including the assertion that Pao was, astoundingly, the last line of defense for the vicious trolls who wanted to get her fired. On Tuesday, new Reddit CEO Steve Huffman — Ohanian’s other half — announced that the company would reveal possible changes to how it deals with some of the site’s nastiest communities. In the announcement, Huffman claimed that “neither Alexis nor I created Reddit to be a bastion of free speech,” setting Reddit’s censorship-averse zealots off in a renewed frenzy, and with good reason; Ohanian in particular has extolled Reddit as a bastion of free speech. In a comment left on Huffman’s announcement, Wong attacks Huffman’s claim, alleging that he was perfectly willing to eradicate controversial content in the past. “Back when I was running things, if there was anything racist, sexist, or homophobic I’d ban it right away,” Huffman allegedly told Wong at the height of controversy during Wong’s tenure as CEO. In fact, Wong claims that Reddit’s leaders have been pushing for some time to ban the site’s most controversial communities, and that Pao, ironically, was the one keeping them alive.