Reddit faced internal and external backlash this week when CEO Steve Huffman wrote a letter saying the site does "not tolerate hate, racism, and violence, and while we have work to do to fight these on our platform, our values are clear."

Since it was founded by Ohanian, Huffman and Aaron Swartz in 2005, the site has been a hotbed for some of the internet's most abhorrent racism and sexism. The site has long faced criticism for its refusal to take down violent white supremacist subreddits and for fostering forums of hate speech.

One of the most infamous subreddits, r/The_Donald, had to be quarantined by the site in June 2019 because of the overabundance of hate speech, according to BBC. Reddit said it quarantined the subreddit because members were threatening "violence against police and public officials," during a situation in Oregon. Multiple people in the forum also wrote that they would shoot Democratic lawmakers in the state.

But, since President Donald Trump announced he was running for office, it has been one of Reddit's most active subreddits and has more than 750,000 subscribers, BBC reported. In 2017 the site was forced to ban r/altright and r/alternativeright because the groups repeatedly flouted the site's hate speech rules.

Alexis-Olympia-Ohanian

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