A petition to oust Reddit Inc. interim CEO Ellen Pao has gained traction following last week's "Reddit Blackout."
The petition, which was started about a month ago, has garnered more than 200,000 signatures as of July 9, 2015.
The number of signatures for the petition skyrocketed after most subreddit communities went private for a day last week. The rash sacking of Victoria Taylor, former Reddit Director of Communications, triggered the blackout.
Taylor was well-regarded and viewed as an extremely essential individual within the Reddit community. Her work involved facilitating the "Ask Me Anything" subreddit (/r/IAmA), where celebrities and other high-profile personas from various fields made themselves available for queries from Reddit users.
Pao apologized over her company's handling of Taylor, as well the long history of mistakes that the company has committed. "We screwed up. Not just on July 2, but also over the past several years," Pao said in her official statement. "Today, we acknowledge this long history of mistakes. We are grateful for all you do for reddit, and the buck stops with me," the Reddit CEO added. However, even after the apology, the number of signatures favoring the petition is still steadily increasing.
According to the petition, Pao, a lawyer, was appointed interim CEO for Reddit Inc. in November 2014 and a "new age of censorship" for Reddit.com followed. The petition also highlights Pao losing her gender discrimination case against Kleiner Perkins, a venture capital company based in Silicon Valley, California.
Many believe Reddit has previously taken steps that violate the shared democracy inside the communities snf monetize the "internet's frontpage". "A vast majority of the Reddit community believes that Pao," a manipulative individual who will sue her way to the top," has overstepped her boundaries and fears that she "will run Reddit into the ground," said an excerpt from petition filed at change.org.
