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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Reddit CEO Steve Huffman discussed his compensation package in a video Q&amp;A posted on the forum.</li><li>The CEO's $193 million pay package includes a mix of salary and stock.</li></ul>Reddit CEO <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-ipo-shares-loyal-users-ai-steve-huffman-sam-altman-2024-2">Steve Huffman</a> has received backlash over his $193 million compensation.Ever since word got out about Huffman's pay, users on Quora, Reddit, and X have criticized the package. Some feel the amount is too high for a platform that doesn't pay moderators or users — and for a company that hasn't been profitable thus far."The feel good moment of simultaneously revealing your CEO is overpaid while your risk assessment underscores the important of unpaid moderators," one user <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/1axspk8/comment/krq5l64/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=mweb3x&amp;utm_name=mweb3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button">wrote</a> in a discussion post about the topic on Reddit.Huffman went on the platform he cofounded to defend his pay in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RDDT/comments/1bhr6uv/amalmosta_answers_but_make_it_video/">video</a> Q&amp;A. "Look, I'm glad this question was asked because there's been a lot of commentary on this topic," Huffman said.The CEO said his compensation is based on salary and stock, and Reddit board members set the amount based on his performance.According to an SEC <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1713445/000162828024010137/reddit-sx1a1.htm#i1b9a579e78a34dfa99f7f26daeec195b_94">filing</a>, Huffman got a salary of $341,346 in 2023, which is relatively low for a CEO of a major public corporation. In February, this was raised to $550,000. He also got a $792,000 bonus last year based on Reddit user numbers, revenue, and a type of profitability known as adjusted EBITDA that excludes certain expenses. The bulk of his compensation package is now in restricted stock units and stock options. A lot of this compensation is based on Huffman staying at Reddit through late 2028, and some is triggered based on completing the IPO, according to the SEC filing. Half of the stock options vest at $25.29, a relatively easy bar to reach. The other half only vest if Reddit shares reach $45, $60, and $90 in public market trading over 10 years, the SEC filing explains. That's a higher bar and aligns the CEO's interests with shareholders. <h2>A "big grant" late last year</h2>Huffman said in the video that his "big grant at the end of 2023" was a result of the board canceling existing stock awards and then granting him this new equity package. "They did this to simplify things for both the company and me and align my performance with the company's performance. Some of the stock vests at IPO," the CEO added.However, the SEC filing also states that some of Huffman's previous performance-based RSU award was cancelled because the grants were "not providing the incentive initially intended." Reddit went on to say that it cancelled many of the "PRSUs for which performance had not already been achieved."<h2>Huffman already owns Reddit stock</h2>In addition, Huffman already owns about 3.2% of Reddit. The company is targeting a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-ipo-valuation-price-range-sec-wallstreetbets-meme-stocks-2021-2024-3">$6.4 billion valuation for its upcoming IPO this week</a>. So the CEO's stake will be worth about $200 million, even before his new equity compensation begins to kick in. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-ipo-advance-conde-nast-windfall-2024-3">Reddit and its investors plan to sell</a> 22 million shares and they are targeting an IPO price of $31 to $34.<h2>Zuckerberg versus Elon</h2>In contrast, Meta cofounder and CEO <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-net-worth#:~:text=What%20is%20Mark%20Zuckerberg's%20salary,equity%20awards%20from%20the%20company.">Mark Zuckerberg</a> gets a $1 annual salary, and was awarded no bonus and zero equity awards in 2020, 2021 and 2020, according to Meta's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0001326801/000132680123000050/meta-20230414.htm">latest annual proxy filing</a>. Meta pays more than $20 million a year to cover Zuckerberg's security and use of a private jet. And, of course, he owns a major stake in the company, so if his performance improves, Meta shares should rise, making him more wealthy. The company also started issuing dividends, which means Zuckerberg collects hundreds of million of dollars a year from those payouts. Elon Musk is on the other end of the spectrum. His <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-pay-package-wealth-lose-richest-person-spot-tesla-2024-1">pay package at Tesla was valued at more than $50 billion.</a> A Delaware judge recently <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/judge-strikes-down-elon-musk-tesla-compensation-pay-package-2024-1">struck down</a> this compensation. <h2>Huffman's chances of getting even richer</h2>Back at Reddit, it's unlikely that Huffman will get $193 million in compensation. That's an estimate the company has to make for regulatory and disclosure purposes. It's based on the estimated fair value of the package on a certain date. His new RSUs vest in installments through late 2028, and the stock options can be exercised over 10 years, but only if Reddit shares hold up and then go higher. Either way, Huffman is already incredibly wealthy and has a chance to become even richer as Reddit goes public.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman defends his $193 million compensation package

<keyword id="610465" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Y-Combinator">Y Combinator</keyword> which has already launched courses like its Fall 2014 Stanford course: How to Start a Startup, has come up with a larger scale online course called <keyword id="2512024" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Startup-School">Startup School</keyword>, which is free to apply. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/heres-my-experience-at-the-tata-coffee-plantation-bungalows-that-are-over-140-years-old/articleshow/57496157.cms">ALSO READ: Here’s my experience at the Tata Coffee Plantation bungalows that are over 140 years old</a> 
 Y <keyword id="4261984" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="combinator">Combinator</keyword>, which has backed over 900 <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword>, is offering a ten-week class is a composite of lectures, class office hours and group office hours. 
 YC is targeting current startup founding teams with the class with ‘Startup School’ which will be recorded at <keyword id="101399" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Stanford-University">Stanford University</keyword> and feature speakers like WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum, Stripe CEO <keyword id="1754843" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Patrick-Collison">Patrick Collison</keyword>, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, <keyword id="274437" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Quora">Quora</keyword> CEO Adam D’Angelo, Facebook’s VP for growth <keyword id="3121128" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Alex-Schultz">Alex Schultz</keyword>, and YC’s own partners. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/the-indian-it-and-ites-industries-salaries-will-suffer-due-to-trumps-trade-policies-this-year/articleshow/57499653.cms">ALSO READ: The Indian IT and ITeS industries’ salaries will suffer due to Trump’s trade policies this year</a> 
 
The full students will have access to the shared community of startups taking the course via a dedicated Slack channel and will be required to report weekly company updates while some students will get access to advice from YC alumni. 
 
At the conclusion of the course, students will share their learning at an informal demo day. 
 
The class features an entire lecture dedicated to building a great company culture which will teach Students how to build and manage teams and the specifics of what to look for when hiring. 
 
Registration is open now and the course will begin on April 5th

Y Combinator introduces free online ‘Startup School’ and you can apply

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Reddit saw a 50% increase in daily active users in the second quarter, outpacing competitors.</li><li>The platform's growth contrasts with X's 1.6% and Meta's 7% increases in the same period.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-cofounder-top-4-tips-startup-success-alexis-ohanian-masterclass-2024-6">Reddit</a> may be one of the only social media companies seeing tons of new people sign up.The forum-based platform saw a 51% increase in daily active users globally and a 59% increase in the US in the second quarter of the year, a stark difference from some of its competitors.X said daily active users<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.ft.com/content/1829abb6-d8d0-4d67-9b1b-628f583b3291"> grew 1.6%</a> in the same period, the FT reported. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/social-media-dead-instagram-tiktok-bereal-replaced-group-chats-messaging-2023-8">Meta's platforms ,</a>which include Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, reported an increase of 7%, per the company's second-quarter earnings. Even TikTok, which dominated the social media race since 2018, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-growth-collapsed-life-getting-in-way-2024-3">saw user growth collapse</a> to 0% at the end of 2023 — and the privately-held company has not reported user numbers since then.Reddit is growing fast — but it's comparatively small. The platform had 342 million active users, while Meta had 3.3 billion users, the companies said in their earnings reports this quarter.Daily active users are a measure of how much people want to engage with a platform. It's an important metric for social media companies because more users typically translates to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-ads-reaches-1-billion-annual-revenue-run-rate-2024-8">more advertising money.</a>Reddit, which went public in March, reported its second round of earnings as a listed company on Tuesday. The company made $281 million in revenue, a 54% year-on-year increase, which it attributed to advertising revenue growth and licensing deals with OpenAI and Google."User growth has continued to climb," said Steve Huffman, Reddit's co-Founder and CEO, on a Tuesday earnings call. "More and more people are coming to Reddit to explore their interests, engage in conversations and find their communities."<h2 id="613bd80b-6dac-475e-96d1-68e34c6bffc8">User-generated push</h2>One of the drivers of Reddit's success, while the rest of Big Tech <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-growth-collapsed-life-getting-in-way-2024-3">struggles to win user attention</a>, is that people are treating the platform like a search engine."Users run over 1 billion search queries a month on Reddit today," Huffman said in the earnings call.Reddit also <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-traffic-surges-from-google-search-2024-6">beat every other social media platform</a> in terms of monthly traffic in the past year. Reddit's desktop and mobile website visits shot up by 39% year-over-year in May, while Facebook had an 8% decline.Reddit's licensing partnership with OpenAI is expected to encourage more Reddit content on ChatGPT as well.And existing search engines' Reddit links are also driving user growth.In August, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-reddit-is-taking-over-google-right-now-2024-4">Google rolled out a big search</a> update that seemed to propel user-generated content, after years of noticing users add "Reddit" to the end of their search words. The update gave Reddit, and another forum-based platform Quora, more visibility on Google."Our research has shown that people often want to learn from others' experiences with a topic, so we've continued to make it easier to find helpful perspectives on Search when it's relevant to a query," a Google spokesperson <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-reddit-is-taking-over-google-right-now-2024-4">previously told Business Insider.</a>In February, Google and Reddit also signed a licensing deal allowing the search giant to train its AI models based on the forum's content.

People are still piling into at least one social media network

<ul class="summary-list"><li>This post originally appeared in the Insider Today newsletter.</li></ul>Good morning! A controversial new study suggests intermittent fasting increases your chance of dying of cardiovascular illness. But critics of the research, which hasn't been published in a peer-reviewed journal, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intermittent-fasting-linked-higher-risk-of-early-death-controversial-study-2024-3">are skeptical of the findings</a>.In today's big story, we're looking at what a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-gemini-may-make-elon-musk-sam-altman-really-jealous-2024-3">potential partnership between Google and Apple</a> over AI features would mean for both companies and the wider industry.What's on deck:<ul><li>Markets: Longtime Goldman exec Stephanie Cohen details her <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stephanie-cohen-leaving-goldman-sachs-cloudflare-2024-3">decision to depart for Cloudflare</a>.</li><li>Tech: Instagram isn't losing the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-playing-the-long-game-against-tiktok-and-winning-2024-3">social-media wars after all</a>.</li><li>Business: New research suggests a recession has at least one benefit: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/recessions-mortality-degrowth-economy-gdp-unemployment-environment-pollution-2024-3">increasing our lifespan</a>.</li></ul>But first, a tech dream team.If this was forwarded to you, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/insider-today">sign up here.</a><h3>The big story</h3><h2>Google, Apple, AI</h2><div type="image" title="An Apple logo with two Google logos inside it." height="1440" width="1920" msid="108623497" hostid="261" sizebytes="18848"></div>Two of the world's biggest tech companies are reportedly discussing a partnership that would upend the AI industry.Apple is considering integrating Google's AI model, Gemini, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-gemini-may-make-elon-musk-sam-altman-really-jealous-2024-3">into the iPhone</a>.Nothing is finalized, so the potential deal terms aren't clear. But the broad strokes of the arrangement could see Apple license Gemini to power new features on iPhone software as soon as this year, according to a report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.The rumors come at the perfect time for both sides.For weeks, Google has been <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-losing-cool-factor-popularity-silicon-valley-comeback-2024-2">publicly trashed over Gemini</a> being too "woke." The criticism was so loud CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged the company "got it wrong" in a memo. More broadly, insiders have questioned if Google can still be considered the tech world's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-gemini-ai-layoffs-innovation-boring-2024-2">vanguard of "cool."</a>Meanwhile, Apple has drawn attention for what it's not doing in AI. The company has been <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-investors-ai-race-tim-cook-2024-2">noticeably quiet around its AI plans</a> compared to peers like Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon.CEO Tim Cook alluded to a bigger announcement about the tech later this year at Apple's annual shareholder meeting. But the company seems to be playing catch up, as it reallocated resources from its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ev-car-exit-electric-vehicles-market-difficul-2024-2">scrapped electric vehicle to focus on generative AI</a>.By teaming up, Google's Gemini gets a much-needed vote of confidence and access to the iPhone's sizable user base. And Apple keeps pace in the AI race by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-google-outsource-ai-mess-gemini-iphone-2024-3">outsourcing some of the messy bits</a> of the business, Business Insider's Hasan Chowdhury writes.Wall Street seems to agree. Both companies' shares <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-alphabet-stock-price-iphone-google-gemini-wall-street-investors-2024-3">rallied off the back of the report</a>, BI's Phil Rosen writes.<div type="image" title="Sam Altman (left); Sundar Pichai (center); Elon Musk (right)." height="750" width="1000" msid="108623499" hostid="261" sizebytes="120886"></div>Apple and Google have a history of successful partnerships.Google has paid Apple to be the default search provider on the iPhone for years. Apple gets a nice chunk of change — reportedly<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-apple-default-search-engine-iphone-deal-value-18-billion-2023-10"> $18 billion in 2021</a>. Google maintains its place as the go-to search engine on the internet. It's a win-win.The tie-up isn't without its critics, though. It's a key piece of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-lawsuit-antitrust-case-doj-search-agreements-apple-2023-9">Department of Justice's lawsuit against Google</a> for "anticompetitive and exclusionary" behavior in a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/news-today-september-12-google-doj-tech-apple-amazon-2023-9">landmark trial for Big Tech</a> that kicked off last year.So even if Apple and Google come to an agreement, they could still face some serious regulatory pushback.(And to be clear, Bloomberg's report mentioned Apple had discussions with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, about a similar arrangement, so there's still a long way to go.)But if the history of Apple-Google deals has taught us anything, their combined power is almost unmatched.<h2>3 things in markets</h2><div type="image" title="Photo illustration of Stephanie Cohen." height="975" width="1300" msid="108623503" hostid="261" sizebytes="69700"></div><ol><li>A Goldman goodbye from one of the top women on Wall Street. Stephanie Cohen is departing the bank to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stephanie-cohen-leaving-goldman-sachs-cloudflare-2024-3">join Cloudflare as its first-ever chief strategy officer</a>. She reflected on her 20-plus year career at Goldman, her advice to the bank's executives, and why she's jumping headfirst into tech.</li><li>Wall Street is feeling optimistic about a soft landing. It's "risk-on" for many investors, who are betting the economy will be fine. The Street is mostly bullish thanks to strong economic growth and the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-investors-risk-stock-market-outlook-inflation-recession-unemployment-2024-3">prospect of interest rate cuts being in the pipeline</a>.</li><li>Japan's central bank raised interest rates for the first time in 17 years. The last time the Bank of Japan hiked borrowing costs was in February 2007. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japan-central-bank-raises-interest-rates-17-years-2024-3">The market's response to its move was muted</a>, with Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index closing 0.7% higher on Tuesday.</li></ol><h2>3 things in tech</h2><div type="image" title="Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (left); TikTok CEO Shou Chew (right)." height="975" width="1300" msid="108623505" hostid="261" sizebytes="42640"></div><ol><li>Instagram is beating TikTok. Instagram <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-playing-the-long-game-against-tiktok-and-winning-2024-3">far outpaced TikTok in global downloads</a> last year, using its core photo feature and reels to win over consumers. Still, people are spending more time on TikTok than on Instagram.</li><li>Here's what creators were talking about at SXSW. While AI was a popular topic of discussion, many panels failed to talk about its downsides. Meanwhile, some <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sxsw-takeaways-creator-economy-artificial-intelligence-tiktok-ban-2024-3">creators and employees said they were "bored"</a> of talking about a potential TikTok ban.</li><li>Nvidia unveiled its next-generation chip. CEO Jensen Huang revealed the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-unveils-next-generation-ai-chip-blackwell-2024-3">Blackwell B200 GPU</a> at the semiconductor giant's "Woodstock of AI" event on Monday. The chips "are the engine to power this new industrial revolution," he said.</li></ol><h2>3 things in business</h2><div type="image" title="Two people sitting in inflatable tubes, floating in a pool." height="500" width="1000" msid="108623507" hostid="261" sizebytes="117520"></div><ol><li>Recessions have a weird benefit: They help us live longer. New research found the worse the economy is, the longer we live. That's because <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/recessions-mortality-degrowth-economy-gdp-unemployment-environment-pollution-2024-3">it cuts down on pollution</a> — with less activity (fewer people driving to work, factories and offices slowing down), the air gets cleaner.</li><li>5-Hour Energy's billionaire owner elbowed his way into publishing Sports Illustrated — now he's lost it. Late last year, Manoj Bhargava took control of Sports Illustrated publisher Arena Group, swiftly laying off dozens of employees. His <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/manaj-bhargava-arena-group-sports-illustrated-2024-3">erratic behavior and failure to pay a licensing fee</a>, however, resulted in him losing SI.</li><li>Reddit's CEO defended his massive pay package. Steve Huffman said in a video Q&amp;A that his <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-defends-193-million-compensation-package-2024-3">$193 million compensation package</a> was based on both salary and stock. Some Quora, Reddit, and X users feel the amount is too high for a platform that doesn't pay its moderators and hasn't been profitable thus far.</li></ol><h2>In other news</h2><ul><li><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/drake-bell-sexual-abuse-nickelodeon-quiet-on-set-2024-3">Drake Bell knows life is not a Disney movie</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-civil-fraud-judgment-cant-pay-2024-3">Trump, in 5,000-page NY fraud case filing, says he can't foot $464M appeal bond</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-creator-rewards-program-challenges-google-search-youtube-2024-3">TikTok's new creator rewards program is all about boosting search and competing with YouTube</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-don-lemon-small-amount-ketamine-every-other-week-2024-3">Elon Musk says he takes a small amount of ketamine every other week</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pubmatic-ad-spending-spike-billion-cpm-caused-by-server-error-2024-3">A 'server anomaly' that made it look like some advertisers were bidding billions of dollars sent the adtech industry into chaos</a>.</li><li><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-search-generative-experience-ai-lady-gaga-sge-2024-3">A Lady Gaga Google Search shows how AI is upending the world's most profitable online business. 'Site owners are terrified.'</a></li></ul><h2>What's happening today</h2><ul><li>US presidential primary elections will be held in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and Ohio.</li><li>NCAA March Madness kicks off today.</li></ul>The Insider Today team: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/dan-defrancesco">Dan DeFrancesco</a>, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/hallam-bullock">Hallam Bullock</a>, editor, in London. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/jordan-parker-erb">Jordan Parker Erb</a>, editor, in New York. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/george-glover">George Glover</a>, reporter, in London.

Google and Apple's rumored partnership could upend the AI industry

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images</div></div></div>Reddit is in turmoil. The social news and community site has spent weeks wracked by protests, high-profile staff departures, and staff bickering. It's a battle for the heart of the "front-page of the internet" - and it's hard to see how Reddit staff can win this one.To recap: The chaos kicked off in earnest with the abrupt, unexplained dismissal of popular staff member Victoria Taylor earlier this month, which sparked massive protests that saw volunteer moderators shut down hundreds of the site's most popular communities.But Taylor's departure was just the straw that broke the camel's back. Moderators have complained for years that they are neglected by the for-profit company and not given adequate tools to police their communities. After CEO Yishan Wong left last year, the divisive former VC Ellen Pao was brought in as an interim replacement - compounding user concerns about the direction of the site.Reddit now faces an existential question about the sort of the site it wants to be, and what sort of communities it wants to foster. Whatever it decides, its users won't be happy.<h2>Reddit is increasingly at odds with its history</h2>Reddit, historically, has been extremely pro-free speech. You only have to look at <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/society/reddit-beatingwomen-misogyny-images/">Reddit's early defence of r/Jailbait</a>, the now-shuttered community dedicated to sharing photos of provocative girls who appear to be (or are) under the age of consent, to see that.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://twitter.com/yishan">Twitter/Yishan Wong</a>Former Reddit CEO Yishan Wong.</div></div></div>In late 2014, when hundreds of intimate photos of celebrities were leaked online in an episode dubbed "Celebgate," a community dedicated to disseminating the photos - r/TheFappening - gained a quarter of a billion page views before it was deleted, and Reddit admins actively helped the community's moderators deal with the influx of traffic. Even after it was banned <a href="http://www.redditblog.com/2014/09/every-man-is-responsible-for-his-own.html">then-CEO Yishan Wong wrote in a blog post that</a> every Reddit user "has the right to choose between right and wrong, good and evil, and that it is your responsibility to do so. When you know something is right, you should choose to do it. But as much as possible, we will not force you to do it."But Wong subsequently left the company, and was replaced by Ellen Pao - a move that immediately spooked some in the community. Pao is perhaps best-known to the public for <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/ellen-pao-trial-most-stunning-revelations-2015-3">a failed lawsuit against her former employer, Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp; Byers</a>, in which she alleged she had faced gender discrimination at the venture capital firm. Given that Reddit plays host to numerous virulently anti-feminist and even outright misogynist communities under its free speech umbrella, the fear was that she would take a dimmer view of Reddit's dark underbelly than her predecessor.These fears were apparently confirmed in June 2015, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/reddit-bans-r-fatpeoplehate-the-community-furious-ellen-pao-2015-6">when r/FatPeopleHate and a number of other communities were shuttered</a>. The company said they "break our reddit rules based on their harassment of individuals" - but to many Redditors, this was tantamount to a betrayal of the site's free-speech roots.The response from the community was explosive, with almost every top post on the site at one point protesting the decision. Pao became a particular focal point of the often profane criticism. One comment on the announcement that read <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/39bpam/removing_harassing_subreddits/cs253ug">"f**k you Ellen Pao Ellen Pao you SJW [Social Justice Warrior] piece of shit"</a> was upvoted by users more than 3,000 times. And at one point, 31 of the top 33 posts on the subreddit r/PunchableFaces were <a href="http://imgur.com/a/NGGR1">photos of Ellen Pao's face</a>.Here's how Reddit looked in the aftermath of the r/FatPeopleHate ban (click to expand):<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="Reddit" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/557962bbdd08958a3d8b45f3-960/screen shot 2015-06-11 at 10.59.29.png"></a>Reddit</div></div></div><h2>Protests erupt as years of problems come to a head</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Erich Schlegel/AP ImagesReddit's Victoria Taylor, far left, moderates a live, in-person "Ask Me Anything" session on GMOs at the GMO Answers exhibit at SXSW.</div></div></div>As already mentioned, another - less prominent - source of tension between Reddit volunteer moderators and the company's management was the lack of support the former felt they were receiving. This came to a head in July, when the dismissal of Taylor - still officially unexplained - <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/reddit-in-chaos-hundreds-subreddits-go-private-after-victoria-leaves-iama-2015-7">saw hundreds of popular communities go dark in protest</a>."As much as Victoria is loved, this reaction is not all a result of her departure," wrote one moderator at the time of the protests. "There is a feeling among many of the moderators of reddit that the admins do not respect the work that is put in by the thousands of unpaid volunteers who maintain the communities of the 9,656 active subreddits, which they feel is expressed by, among other things, the lack of communication between them and the admins, and their disregard of the thousands of mods who keep reddit's communities going. "In the aftermath, <a href="https://www.change.org/p/ellen-k-pao-step-down-as-ceo-of-reddit-inc">over 200,000 Reddit users signed a petition</a> calling for Ellen Pao's head, holding her personally responsible for the protests - the largest in the site's history. Despite apologising, she subsequently resigned.One of the most credible explanations for Taylor's dismissal comes from <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/victoria-taylor-first-statement-after-dismissal-reddit-protests-2015-7">Quora staffer Marc Bodnick</a>, who claims that she was being pushed to commercialise AMA's - a popular public Q&amp;A format with celebrities she helped coordinate - in a way she wasn't comfortable with. The threat of commercialisation is a constant worry for some Redditors, who fear the site's content will be diluted to make it more palatable for advertisers - especially after the site <a href="http://recode.net/2014/09/07/reddit-raising-a-big-round-and-some-y-combinator-players-are-in-the-mix/">closed a $50 million funding round in September 2014</a>.Former CEO Yishan Wong has popped up on Reddit to say that this is along the right lines, but it wasn't Pao that fired Taylor, but Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian. "[Ohanian] had different ideas for AMAs, he didn't like Victoria's role, and decided to fire her."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image">Robert Galbraith/Reuters</div></div></div>Wong went on to say that "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 sh--ty thing to do."Ohanian responded to Wong, to say that "it saddens me to hear you say this, Yishan. I did report to her, we didn't handle it well, and again, I apologize."It's astonishing to see current and former executives fight over internal company politics in a public forum like this - and is a testament to just how differently Reddit conducts itself to other tech companies. It is unthinkable that former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo might ever attack cofounder Jack Dorsey on the social network, for example.And now, a third high-profile female Reddit employee has left the company. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/reddit-chief-engineer-quits-after-two-months-says-pao-was-on-a-glass-cliff-2015-7">Bethanye Blount, formerly the chief engineer, has quit after two months on the job</a>, saying she has lost faith in the company's new direction and that Pao was put on a "glass cliff."<h2>There are two competing visions of Reddit's future - and they can't co-exist</h2>In short: The leadership is in disarray, and the userbase is up in arms. Reddit now faces fundamental questions about its future.On one hand, Reddit may choose to stay true to its free speech roots. r/FatPeopleHate's ban had the community up in arms, but it is by no means a death knell to what Reddit stands for. Cofounder Steve Huffman is now CEO, and <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/13/reddit-ceo-resigns-alexis-ohanian-returns-as-chairman/">Ohanian rejoined the company after Wong's departure in November 2014</a>. That's reassuring for the users who pine for the "good old days."It sounds like Yishan Wong, before his departure, also favoured this option. For starters, there's his unapologetically pro-free speech rhetoric he issued in the aftermath of the ban of r/TheFappening. But there's also <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/fred-wilson-blockchain-reddit-openbazaar-uncensorable-2015-7?r=US">his recently revealed plans to build a decentralised Reddit based on bitcoin technology that could have been far more difficult to censor</a>. (These plans never came to fruition, and the engineer hired to work on the project left the company.)But to go down this road would come with a serious cost. There is ever-more attention on Reddit's darker side, and the communities that thrive on it. <a href="http://braythwayt.com/2015/07/11/so-long-reddit.html">In a widely shared blog post published on July 11</a>, Reginald Braythwayt accused Reddit of overtaking notorious website Stormfront "as the world's largest White Supremacy community." As such, Braythwayt says he can no longer support or visit Reddit:I have no trouble distinguishing those who visit /r/programming and /r/javascript from those who inhabit /r/coontown. I like almost everyone I've interacted with on Reddit. But while the inhabitants may be different people, the landlord is the same person, and keeping the lights on in /r/javascript is also keeping the lights on in the Chimpire.I don't need to debate whether someone is legally allowed to have a certain type of hateful speech, or whether its effects go beyond merely being "appalling" or "offensive." What I know is this: Choosing to build a for-profit business around hosting such speech is a choice, and choosing whether to support that business is also a choice.<a href="http://www.chuqui.com/2015/07/the-death-of-reddit/">In another blog post</a>, veteran community manager Chuq Von Rospach uses the analogy of a "biker bar" to explain the toxic effects of letting negative communities go unchallenged:Reddit, however, has a basement, and in all honesty, the owners of this building would prefer nobody look down there, because again, it's a big space full of community rooms as well, but down there are the groups Reddit feel are part of the community but would prefer most of us would stay avoid. In some ways Reddit should be lauded for being inclusive of all community groups, even the uncomfortable ones, but down in that basement is a big part of the ultimate death of Reddit.Here's the thing. there are groups that don't feel the need to behave, that see that rebellion against authority as the base of their enjoyment. And there are people who simply get off by destroying what others build or screwing up what others enjoy. If you invite those people into your house, eventually some of them are going to start pissing into your fireplace or throwing chairs at each other in the main hall. Even if you keep them in their own out of the way mostly hidden community room, the things they do will attract attention adn the authorities, and when the police come through your front door and raid your basement, your other patrons will notice. When that happens often enough, you'll see more and more of those become ex-patrons. Most of us don't want to party in a biker bar. Hell, most of us don't want to party next door to a biker bar, or within blocks of a biker bar. Once your place gets that reputation, it's going to make everyone around it nervous.By letting racist and misogynistic communities grow on Reddit, it will put off ordinary people, Von Rospach argues - and Braythwayt's post seems to confirm that is starting to happen.The alternative has very serious problems too, however. Reddit draws its cultural relevancy - its claim to be the "front page of the internet" - from the fact it is a melting point a thousand disparate communities forced together. Given free rein, these communities have done incredible (and truly terrible) things.Von Rospach wants to see Reddit hire a hundred of its top moderators and jetison large numbers of its more controversial communities. But even assuming the moderators agree to be hired, this would undermine everything that made Reddit what it is today. Large numbers of users, while abhorring the toxic communities on Reddit, support their right to exist, and would riot if they were shuttered. Top-down reorganisations risk consigning internet communities to overnight irrelevancy, <a href="http://mashable.com/2012/07/18/digg-the-rise-and-fall/">as former Reddit rival Digg once found</a>, and it's difficult to envision any large scale reconstruction of Reddit that doesn't trigger a massive exodus of users. There may be some kind of functional community at the end of it, but it would undermine everything Reddit has spent the last 10 years building.Whatever Reddit's management does, it pits itself against its own community, either through action or inaction. As such, Reddit staff aren't only at war with each other - they're at war with their users too. 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