Reddit CEO To Harden Stand Against Moderators And Third-Party Apps As Protests Refuse To Subside

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman hasn't buckled or relented to the ongoing protests that have resulted in massive blackouts and subreddits remaining inaccessible. Not only has he continued to strongly defend the recently-taken policy decisions, but is also framing policies and changing rules.

Reddit is facing one of the strongest backlashes from its loyal communities. However, the CEO seemingly doesn't want to budge. Let's look at the latest developments.

Reddit CEO Lashes Out At Moderators, Calls Them "Landed Gentry"

Ever since the protests began, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has taken a hard stand against moderators who operate communities on Reddit, called subreddits. He has been lashing out at these individuals without taking any names.

In one of the interviews, Huffman lamented that Moderators have become elites who cannot be democratically dethroned:

"If you're a politician or a business owner, you are accountable to your constituents. So, a politician needs to be elected, and a business owner can be fired by its shareholders. And I think, on Reddit, the analogy is closer to the landed gentry: The people who get there first get to stay there and pass it down to their descendants, and that is not democratic."

Huffman strongly indicated that he plans to make changes to moderator policies so users can vote them out. Currently, only a higher-ranking moderator, or the company, can evict or replace moderators. This may sound democratic, but some senior moderators have claimed that Reddit was threatening to remove moderators who are staging an indefinite blackout.

Reddit Needs Moderators But Doesn't Intend To Pay Them

Huffman has categorically mentioned that Reddit wasn't going to invest in paid moderators within the company or make decisions that centralize power. This may sound fair, but Reddit is also reportedly threatening moderators who aren't backing down and making their subreddits public again.

Moreover, Reddit's policies suggest the company is perfectly fine with taking the services of unpaid moderators to monitor and maintain the huge communities. A study published last year estimated that unpaid moderators cumulatively spend 466 hours per day on maintaining their communities.

If Reddit paid these unpaid moderators just $20 per hour, it would cost the platform $3.4 million annually. Simply put, Reddit doesn't want to pay moderators but wants to earn from their communities, subreddits, and the platforms that rely on the data.

Is Reddit CEO Playing A Dangerous Game?

Through a blog post, Reddit claimed that 80 percent of the top 5,000 communities in terms of daily active users are now open. This directly means that Reddit has been hit hard due to the protests.

Some reports suggested that a few advertisers had paused their campaigns during the blackout. Incidentally, Reddit has been pushing out more ad tools to attract advertisers.

It is amply clear that Reddit's CEO is fixated on making the platform profitable before it goes for an IPO. The API pricing policy changes would significantly accelerate the journey to profitability.

However, the platform may have to find some amicable middle ground with third-party app developers to ensure Reddit earns from the data it generates. Additionally, it may have to find some way of rewarding the moderators.