Reddit Child Abuse Survivor Forums – Users Call for Resignation of Steve Huffman

In perhaps the most poignant and powerful condemnation yet, posters on Reddit’s forums for survivors of child abuse are calling for the resignation of the company’s CEO Steve Huffman.

SteveHuffmanNightmare

In a heart rending post on a Reddit abuse survivor forum, a user known only as ‘CASSeeBurn’ (Cassie) explains her horror at discovering that Reddit hosts paedophile text chat forums, that executives know and nothing has been done. She goes on to say that Steve Huffman literally haunts her nightmares. Artist impression of Steve Huffman child rape nightmare, background and stock photos of children by Dreamstime. Picture of Steve Huffman used under the parody exception to UK and US copyright law. Click for full size.

As well as controversial political forums, Reddit hosts a number of innocent, non-political communities. One set of little known forums includes the subreddits for survivors of abuse called /r/adultsurvivors, /r/rapecounseling and /r/survivorsofabuse. Last night a user called CASSeeBurn (Cassie) posted to each of them [1] (archive[2] [3], explaining she was using a burner account to escape reprisals.

CASSeeBurnClarionCall

Fearing retaliation, the individual known only as CASSeeBurn (Cassie) used a burner account to condemn Steve Huffman. Click for full size.

Chillingly, members of Reddit’s sinister paedophile forums soon arrived to lobby for the post’s removal. Shamefully, the moderators of /r/rapecounseling and /r/survivorsofabuse complied. However, the post survived in /r/adultsurvivors and has been archived. A similar post in /r/The_Donald was treated with respect and kindness by posters there.

According to her post, Cassie’s use of Reddit was not concerned with politics. She was not a soldier in the electoral conflict. Cassie used Reddit as a safe space, to heal. When she first read posts by users of /r/The_Donald claiming that executives were knowingly allowing paedophiles to operate forums on the site she did not believe it. The pull of the awful allegations, however, drove her to investigate. Horrifyingly, it was true. /r/Pedofriends, /r/Pedochat and /r/Pedo101 were there for all to see.

Cassie even seems to have read my previous article in which I confirmed that Reddit executives including their General Counsel were on notice of the existence of the forums and some of the contents. In her post, the user claims that the revelation of the horrific content in what she thought was a safe space brought her to tears and led to nightmares of rape haunted by Reddit CEO Steve Huffman and a ‘creepy french dude’ (likely a reference to Reddit Director of Community Philippe Beaudette).

Users of the survivor subreddits were quick to offer support, as were caring members of /r/The_Donald.

UsersSupportCassieAdultSurvivors

A number of supportive posts in the Adult Survivors subreddit, also calling for Steve Huffman’s resignation and expressing horror at Reddit’s allowing paedophile text chat forums. Click for full size.

Another user posted using an account name suggesting that they also felt metaphorically raped by Steve Huffman –

UsersSupportCassieSurvivorsofAbuse

Another poster condemns Huffman. Their username suggests they feel metaphorically raped by him. Click for full size.

It is worth reminding readers that text discussion of paedophilia, even when graphically sexual, is not necessarily illegal in the US or UK. This is the case even when posters claim to work with children, such as the female teacher whose post I included as evidence in my last article.

However, it is clear that most reputable companies would seek to steer clear of such material. It is also clear that members of /r/Pedofriends lobby outside the subreddit trying to have posts exposing or criticising them removed. Several even contacted this blog trying to pressure me after my last article.

In the past, Reddit was willing to host controversial forums such as /r/Coontown and /r/FatPeopleHate until there was media attention. Now, in a chilling double standard Reddit is willing to go to the wire for the paedophiles (or as they euphemistically call themselves, Minor-Attracted-Persons ‘MAP’).

The utter moral bankruptcy and lack of commercial judgement shown by Reddit’s leadership could not be clearer. Reddit is picking a fight with one of its largest communities, /r/The_Donald – an incredibly active forum of three hundred thousand users.

Worse than Reddit fighting a huge section of its user base, that fight is being conducted on swampy ground and from inside a glass house – Steve Huffman has pilloried supporters of /r/The_Donald when paedophiles are posting about children, (including clothed pictures of children with adults) in public on the website he leads.

It is worth remembering of course that Reddit’s amoral attitude to paedophilia content does not mean that CEO Steve Huffman, General Counsel Melissa Tidwell or Director of Community Philippe Beaudette are paedophiles. It just means that they are unwilling to condemn and exclude the paedophiles on their website.

If anyone disagrees and would like to politely remonstrate with them about this, their email addresses are –

  • steve@reddit.com
  • melissa.tidwell@reddit.com
  • philippe.beaudette@reddit.com

– readers are asked to please not be abusive or disrespectful in any email they send.

On purely commercial grounds, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman should step down. History shows that users of /r/The_Donald as well as former members of banned subreddits will not be slow to make their case aggressively to Reddit investors and advertisers. Matthew Hopkins News wishes Reddit critics well in their endeavours.

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This entry was posted in Free Speech, Human Rights, Reddit, Samuel Collingwood Smith, Steve Huffman by Samuel Collingwood Smith. Bookmark the permalink.

About Samuel Collingwood Smith

Samuel Collingwood Smith was born in the north of England, but his family moved south early in his life and spent most of his early years in Hertfordshire before attending Queen Mary, University of London, where he studied Economics. Sam currently lives in the southeast of England. Smith was employed as a Labour Party fundraiser in the 2001 General Election, and as a Labour Party Organiser in the 2005 General Election. In 2005 Smith was elected as a Borough Councillor and served for 3 years until 2008. In 2009 Smith changed sides to the Conservative party citing division within Labour ranks, Labour broken promises and Conservative improvements to local services. In 2012 Smith started to study a Graduate Diploma in Law, passing in 2014. Smith then moved on to studying a Master's Degree in Law combined with an LPC, receiving an LL.M LPC (with Commendation) in January 2017. During his study, Smith assisted several individuals in high profile court cases as a McKenzie Friend - in one case being praised by Parliamentary petition for his charitable work and legal skills. Smith is also the author of this blog, Matthew Hopkins News, that deals with case law around Family and Mental Capacity issues. The blog also opposes online drama and abuse and criticises extreme-left politicians.

2 thoughts on “Reddit Child Abuse Survivor Forums – Users Call for Resignation of Steve Huffman

  1. Thank you for posting this story. I too was abused as a child and I agree the CEO of Reddit should resign as far as I am concerned.
    Protecting people from a Pedo “Witch Hunt” all the while, letting those same Pedo’s post graphic material about molesting and raping children. This is Horrific.

    The HUMAN race is lost and at this rate, Maybe we should go Extinct,
    I personally do not want to live in a world where Pedophilia and Abuse are commonplace and allowed to continue.

    WE ALL Need to OCCUPY This Block of Washington DC.
    Make Signs with Posters of their Satanic Artwork, so the whole world can see what these people do in their spare time.

    Now More than Ever,…. Keep Your Children Close… There is a Vast Unknown Evil that wants to destroy your child.

  2. These kind of incidents have been on rise lately. What’s more shocking is that people of such high repute indulge in such gross acts! They should be thoroughly punished so that it will set an example for others. Similar incident happened in Paris, where the culprit was thoroughly punished by the judiciary all thanks to the lawyer Bechara Tarabay, [TWITTER LINK REMOVED], who made built a strong case against him!

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