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Reddit controversy continues

Despite Ellen Pao’s resignation on Friday from the CEO position at Reddit, the company continues to struggle with controversy, with their chief engineer Bethanye Blount resigning after joining 2 months ago.

Ellen Pao, interim CEO who recently resigned amidst controversy and protest after the sacking of Victoria Taylor. (Photo: FLICKR, CHRISTOPHER MICHEL)

Blount has expressed her view that Ellen Pao was placed on a so-called “glass cliff”, meaning that she was selected as interim CEO to be forced to make the more negatively received changes on the sight and would be the one to take the fall with all the criticism. Blount also made sure to note that her resignation was not related to any sort of gender issue.

Reddit has been taking heat for the past few weeks after the firing of employee Victoria Taylor, who ran the Ask Me Anythings (AMAs), the popular Q&A section of Reddit which has featured high profile figures and celebrities such as Julian Assange, President Barack Obama, Peter Dinklage, and Amy Poehler.

Yishan Wong, who was the CEO before Pao who stepped down rather suddenly in 2014, has also expressed his feelings regarding how Alexis Ohanian, co-founder and board member, was the one who took control of AMA and fired Victoria, but let Pao take the blame despite his higher ranking.

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and current board member. (Photo: NPR)

From Wong’s reddit post regarding the situation:

Then when the hate-train started up against Pao, Alexis should have been out front and center saying very clearly “Ellen Pao did not make this decision, I did.” Instead, he just sat back and let her take the heat. That’s a stunning lack of leadership and an incredibly shitty thing to do.

I actually asked that he be on the board when I joined; I used to respect Alexis Ohanian. After this, not quite so much.

Ohanian admitted to being the one who chose to fire Victoria Taylor in his own reddit post

It was my decision to change how we work with AMAs and the transition was my failure and I hope we can keep moving forward from that lesson. Today was another step. I’m really excited to be working with Steve again and appreciate what Ellen did during her time here.

He complimented Ellen Pao, calling her a “class act”, but has not been received particularly well by the community.

Steve Huffman, who co-founded Reddit with UVA roommate Alexis Ohanian in 2005 has now taken the position of CEO.