Reddit CEO Steve Huffman admitted his transgressions last Wednesday on abusing his powers by editing user comments of known Trump supporters. He is now facing more insults and even being petitioned by Reddit users to step down as CEO.

Huffman assumed the position of CEO in July 2015, following the controversial resignation of predecessor Ellen Pao, who received a barrage of insults after firing a popular employee and banning sites like the r/fatpeoplehate, The Verge reported. The former Reddit CEO held her position for only eight months, prompting many Reddit users to speculate if Huffman will stay on given his latest transgression.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on his post said "I messed with the "fuck u/spez" comments" and then replaced "spez with r/the_donald mods for an hour," as reported by aol. "Spez" is the user name of the Reddit CEO while r/the_donald is the moderator of a pro-trump subreddit. Huffman became the target of a barrage of insults after deleting the r/pizzagate subreddit of right-wing anti-Clinton users.

Pizzagate refers to a Reddit conspiracy theory linking Hilary Clinton, her campaign chairman Joseph Podesta, a pizza parlor in Washington and a ring of pedophiles. The Reddit CEO justified banning the site after discovering that very personal information has been posted about the persons involved. Moreover, the theory remains unsubstantiated and mostly fabricated.

Huffman was quick to admit his violations of the terms of service, but fell short of giving an outright apology. He tried to appease his detractors by saying that "the community team is very pissed at me" and then made a promise of not doing it again.

Reddit users reacted with one comment that stood out wherein a user pointed out that editing comments appear to be a more serious violation of the terms of service of Reddit than what pizzagate has done. There is now an ongoing petition in the Reddit community asking Reddit CEO Steve Huffman to step down as reported in change.org.

Tags Reddit