Interim CEO of Reddit is currently under the gun after petitions poured in from the online community, CNet said. As of the latest, there are at least 130,000 signatures and still growing in the past days since a key administrator has been axed off the community-curated news site. According to the signature campaign which was launched via Change.org, the petition was made because apparently, the people behind it find Ellan Pao, unfit for the role and they lack confidence in her capabilities to run the website. They also cited that Pao has ushered a new age of censorship and might run Reddit down to the ground.
The petition was launched 3 weeks ago and grew to 16,000 signatures right after it was published. The number grew drastically when Pao decided to fire Victoria Taylor, Reddit's high profiled social news administrator.
Reddit's CEO has been a contrasting figure in Silicon Valley since recording a prominent separation claim against her previous boss Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Pao, a previous junior accomplice with Kleiner Perkins, looked for $16 million from the prestigious investment firm, affirming she was let go in 2012 subsequent to griping about pervasive sexism. A jury in March dismisses her claim, yet Pao has said she means to offer the decision.
Online news website, The Mary Sue, also published an article about this controversy and they focused more on the petition that was launched in Change.org. The petition says that after Pao lost her gender discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, she was appointed right away as Reddit's Chief Executive Officer, and since then, Reddit ventured into a new age of censorship. The letter also said that the Reddit community believes Pao, a manipulative person who will sue her way to the top had overstepped her boundaries and fears that she will ruin Reddit along the way.
As of this time, the female executive has yet to comment on the controversy she is facing.
