This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/17/ellen-pao-reddit-sexist-racist-internet-trolls-winning

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Sexist, racist – the web hounding of Ellen Pao shows the trolls are winning Sexist, racist – the web hounding of Ellen Pao shows the trolls are winning
(about 3 hours later)
Could a woman ever have won the affection of Reddit – the closest thing the internet has to a frat house? With the resignation of Ellen Pao as interim chief executive of the link-sharing and discussion site, we may never know. Because which woman would be brave and foolish enough to take on a high-profile role at the site now?Could a woman ever have won the affection of Reddit – the closest thing the internet has to a frat house? With the resignation of Ellen Pao as interim chief executive of the link-sharing and discussion site, we may never know. Because which woman would be brave and foolish enough to take on a high-profile role at the site now?
In the eight months after taking on the job, Pao did what Reddit’s board asked her to: she tried to expand the site’s audience beyond its core user base of young, white American men. For that, she was compared to Hitler, had her personal details posted online, endured crude jokes about her sex and ethnicity, and saw 213,000 people sign a petition calling for her to be ousted.In the eight months after taking on the job, Pao did what Reddit’s board asked her to: she tried to expand the site’s audience beyond its core user base of young, white American men. For that, she was compared to Hitler, had her personal details posted online, endured crude jokes about her sex and ethnicity, and saw 213,000 people sign a petition calling for her to be ousted.
But let’s rewind. Why should anyone care what happens on a glorified discussion board with far less name recognition than peers such as Facebook or Twitter? The nature of the internet means that even incredibly popular sites – and Reddit has more than 160 million users – can be unknown to outsiders. But even if you haven’t heard of Reddit, you will have seen one of its creations. It spawns many of the viral news stories that drive so much traffic to the mainstream media.But let’s rewind. Why should anyone care what happens on a glorified discussion board with far less name recognition than peers such as Facebook or Twitter? The nature of the internet means that even incredibly popular sites – and Reddit has more than 160 million users – can be unknown to outsiders. But even if you haven’t heard of Reddit, you will have seen one of its creations. It spawns many of the viral news stories that drive so much traffic to the mainstream media.
Related: Reddit's 'decency' reckoning has begun. Why are trolls and racists still winning?Related: Reddit's 'decency' reckoning has begun. Why are trolls and racists still winning?
Over the past few years Reddit has also come to be associated with a particular type of internet user: the kind of people who believe that unless they are given unfettered space to be as offensive and disruptive as they want, we might as well declare free speech dead and all move to North Korea. In the past the site has hosted forums with names such as Creepshots, dedicated to photographs of women taken without their knowledge; Jailbait, where users shared pornographic images of women who looked underage; and a whole slew of racist microsites known collectively as the Chimpire. The rationale for all these was the usual one given for bad behaviour online: don’t get mad – it’s just the internet, not real life.Over the past few years Reddit has also come to be associated with a particular type of internet user: the kind of people who believe that unless they are given unfettered space to be as offensive and disruptive as they want, we might as well declare free speech dead and all move to North Korea. In the past the site has hosted forums with names such as Creepshots, dedicated to photographs of women taken without their knowledge; Jailbait, where users shared pornographic images of women who looked underage; and a whole slew of racist microsites known collectively as the Chimpire. The rationale for all these was the usual one given for bad behaviour online: don’t get mad – it’s just the internet, not real life.
That attitude has gradually polluted Reddit, overshadowing its many beautiful, thoughtful and well curated forums on subjects such as politics, world history and landscape photography. It has also threatened its $500m market valuation, as advertisers – the lifeblood of the free internet – don’t want to promote their brands next to pictures of dead babies or instructions on how to drug and rape women.That attitude has gradually polluted Reddit, overshadowing its many beautiful, thoughtful and well curated forums on subjects such as politics, world history and landscape photography. It has also threatened its $500m market valuation, as advertisers – the lifeblood of the free internet – don’t want to promote their brands next to pictures of dead babies or instructions on how to drug and rape women.
During Pao’s tenure the site began to shut controversial subreddits such as “transfags” and “fatpeoplehate”. Perhaps the backlash to that might have been contained – such forums are only a small part of the site – if the protesters had not managed to piggyback on another unpopular decision: the departure of a popular staff member, Victoria Taylor. They managed to transmute their grievance into a wider narrative about a company that didn’t care about its users.During Pao’s tenure the site began to shut controversial subreddits such as “transfags” and “fatpeoplehate”. Perhaps the backlash to that might have been contained – such forums are only a small part of the site – if the protesters had not managed to piggyback on another unpopular decision: the departure of a popular staff member, Victoria Taylor. They managed to transmute their grievance into a wider narrative about a company that didn’t care about its users.
On one level they had a point. Reddit – like other social networks – relies on a huge amount of unpaid labour, not just from user-generated content but from an army of volunteer moderators. The changes to the site prompted many to ask: were they just customers who had to take the product as offered, or should they have more rights? This is the same uncomfortable grey area between users and workers that fuelled the online hate campaign known as GamerGate. When so much of the internet is free to use, it is difficult to hit companies in their pockets. To some, the logical alternative is to hound companies’ key decision-makers instead.On one level they had a point. Reddit – like other social networks – relies on a huge amount of unpaid labour, not just from user-generated content but from an army of volunteer moderators. The changes to the site prompted many to ask: were they just customers who had to take the product as offered, or should they have more rights? This is the same uncomfortable grey area between users and workers that fuelled the online hate campaign known as GamerGate. When so much of the internet is free to use, it is difficult to hit companies in their pockets. To some, the logical alternative is to hound companies’ key decision-makers instead.
The changes to the site prompted many to ask: were they just customers, or should they have more rights?The changes to the site prompted many to ask: were they just customers, or should they have more rights?
And Pao certainly was hounded. One user proclaimed he or she had found “Ellen Pao’s family crest”: it was a picture of a swastika. Others dubbed her Chairman Pao and compared her tenure to being ruled over by Kim Jong-un. Reddit is a popular site among men’s rights activists – or anti-feminists, as they are more accurately called – and the discovery that Pao had launched an (unsuccessful) action for sexual discrimination against her former employers, Kleiner Perkins, was presented as proof that she was not up to the job. The petition to get rid of her suggested she had “sued her way to the top” – even though making allegations of sexism against your employer is generally recognised to endanger your future job prospects rather than enhance them. As the tech commentator Kaliya Young put it: “Ellen was at the centre of a high-profile sexual discrimination suit versus a major VC [venture capital] firm and she was put in charge of the teenage boy section of the internet. What did you expect was going to happen? It was inevitable that they would turn on her.” And Pao certainly was hounded. One user proclaimed he or she had found “Ellen Pao’s family crest”: it was a picture of a swastika. Others dubbed her Chairman Pao and compared her tenure to being ruled over by Kim Jong-un. Reddit is a popular site among men’s rights activists – or anti-feminists, as they are more accurately called – and the discovery that Pao had launched an (unsuccessful) action for sexual discrimination against her former employers, Kleiner Perkins, was presented as proof that she was not up to the job.
The abuse of Pao was predictable. Reddit forums have been the staging posts for online harassment campaigns before, such as the hate campaigns waged against the videogame critic Anita Sarkeesian and the developer Zoe Quinn. Having tacitly encouraged the site to become a swamp of racism and sexism, no wonder the board was unable to protect its own chief executive. The outpouring of bile also demonstrated the stupidity of arguing that we must give a free pass to hatred if it’s “only on the internet”; it’s stupid to pretend that the online and offline worlds are separate. The petition to get rid of her suggested she had “sued her way to the top” – even though making allegations of sexism against your employer is generally recognised to endanger your future job prospects rather than enhance them. As the tech commentator Kaliya Young put it: “Ellen was at the centre of a high-profile sexual discrimination suit versus a major VC [venture capital] firm and she was put in charge of the teenage boy section of the internet. What did you expect was going to happen? It was inevitable that they would turn on her.”
The abuse of Pao was predictable. Reddit forums have been the staging posts for online harassment campaigns before, such as the hate campaigns waged against the videogame critic Anita Sarkeesian and the developer Zoe Quinn. Having tacitly encouraged the site to become a swamp of racism and sexism, no wonder the board was unable to protect its own chief executive. The bile also demonstrated the falsity of arguing that we must give a free pass to hatred if it’s “only on the internet”; it’s stupid to pretend that the online and offline worlds are separate.
Pao’s gender made her a target from the start. And another recently departed Reddit employee, the chief engineer Bethanye Blount, has suggested that the chief executive was also the victim of the “glass cliff” – a phenomenon where a struggling company decides to appoint a woman either as a last roll of the dice or as a scapegoat to take the blame for its troubles.Pao’s gender made her a target from the start. And another recently departed Reddit employee, the chief engineer Bethanye Blount, has suggested that the chief executive was also the victim of the “glass cliff” – a phenomenon where a struggling company decides to appoint a woman either as a last roll of the dice or as a scapegoat to take the blame for its troubles.
Unsurprisingly, after repeated waves of harassment, Pao left Reddit. The new chief executive, Steve Huffman, says he will not reverse her crackdown on offensive forums: in fact, he wants to go further and create a kind of quarantine zone where “coontown” and similarly abhorrent groups can be contained, with no advertising displayed against such content. Although he is sure to face resistance, Huffman has not yet been compared to Hitler or Kim Jong-un. (It’s almost as if there is some difference between him and Pao that means he attracts less obsessive hate from racists and sexists.)Unsurprisingly, after repeated waves of harassment, Pao left Reddit. The new chief executive, Steve Huffman, says he will not reverse her crackdown on offensive forums: in fact, he wants to go further and create a kind of quarantine zone where “coontown” and similarly abhorrent groups can be contained, with no advertising displayed against such content. Although he is sure to face resistance, Huffman has not yet been compared to Hitler or Kim Jong-un. (It’s almost as if there is some difference between him and Pao that means he attracts less obsessive hate from racists and sexists.)
The saga of Reddit shows the internet at its worst: a place where the loudest, angriest and most intolerant voices drown out the rest, and where small but committed groups of disgruntled white men lash out against any minorities they perceive to be getting uppity. No wonder Pao came to a stark conclusion in an article reflecting on her exit from the site: “The trolls are winning.”The saga of Reddit shows the internet at its worst: a place where the loudest, angriest and most intolerant voices drown out the rest, and where small but committed groups of disgruntled white men lash out against any minorities they perceive to be getting uppity. No wonder Pao came to a stark conclusion in an article reflecting on her exit from the site: “The trolls are winning.”