Reddit claims to be committed to free speech. In reality, it seems to be committed to free speech until it becomes embarrassing or commercially inconvenient. With breath-taking amorality Reddit played host to /r/Coontown for years only to turn on them when they made adverse headlines. Whilst banning /r/Coontown it ignored the plethora of openly paedophile subreddits such as /r/Pedofriends. Now, MHN exposes something far, far worse.

Child abuse victims have publicly called for Steve Huffman’s resignation due to the toleration of paedophile material, one claiming nightmares of him as her abuser. Picture of Steve Huffman used under the parody exception to UK and US copyright law. Click for full size.

In the run-up to the 2016 United States Presidential elections, the Chief Executive of Reddit, Steve Huffman, came into dispute with users of the Donald Trump supporters’ subreddit /r/The_Donald. They once again pointed out the apparently hypocritical targeting of them, using as their example the /r/PedoFriends subreddit. This sub-forum was allegedly a support group for ‘reforming’ paedophiles. However in reality they openly discussed such things as the challenges of downloading child pornography.

After an outcry (including previous articles on this site) and after child abuse survivors called for Steve Huffman to go, /r/PedoFriends was quietly banned. It would be a mistake to think of this as a sign of a suddenly vigorous child protection policy on Reddit however. Far worse forums remain. For example –

Reddit proudly hosts this forum. For three years.

According to a whistleblower, this title and description appears openly in Reddit search. Archive here. The sub-reddit is set to private and I would not try to access it even if I could, because I would risk committing obvious crimes.

However, the description is pretty clear.

Another obviously improper subreddit celebrates its second year on Reddit.

There is also ‘PedoCity’. Again the forum is set to private. After all the golden rule on Reddit has become pretty clear by now. Anything goes as long as it does not become an embarrassment. After three years and several months of Trump supporters scouring the search pages can there really be any doubt that /r/PedoWorld and /r/PedoCity have been reported?

Reddit is openly hosting a forum that states on its face it is ‘PedoWorld’ and is for, ‘Watching pedos rape the young”. Whilst doubtless Steve Huffman et al will plead ignorance, the fact is they should have tools to detect and remove things like this. The unimaginable depravity exposed on Reddit daily is just another reason for Steve Huffman to go.

In truth, Huffman should be excluded from polite society. His site clearly does not stand with the left and Social Justice Warriors. Bigotry is fine … until it becomes a bad news story. Then again he has clearly alienated Conservatives and the supporters of Donald Trump, after misusing his privileged access to edit user posts on their forum. Who are Steve Huffman’s allies? No one.

If anyone disagrees with the presence of Reddit of a forum for, “Watching pedos rape the young” and would like to politely remonstrate with them about this, some leadership email addresses are –

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

Please ensure any emails are courteous and do not contain unlawful threats. MHN readers are also encouraged to politely contact members of the Reddit board and investors. Steve Huffman’s leadership of Reddit needs to end.