Steve Huffman

The Verge reported in 2025 that Elon Musk had 'privately pressured' Reddit CEO Steve Huffman to moderate content critical of him and the Trump administration. After their exchange, Reddit took action and temporarily banned r/WhitePeopleTwitter due to 'policy violations.' This occurred amid broader controversy where over 100 Reddit communities banned users from posting links from X social media site after Musk made an arm gesture critics claimed was a Nazi salute. Reddit also implemented controversial automatic moderation flagging the word 'Luigi' as 'potentially violent' in unrelated contexts.

In anticipation of Reddit's IPO, it was revealed that CEO Steve Huffman's 2023 compensation package was worth $193.2 million, including salary of $341,346, stock awards of $98.3 million and stock options valued at $93.8 million. Reddit lists volunteer moderators as a risk factor in its IPO filing, stating results could be harmed if unable to keep sufficient numbers of unpaid moderators. Huffman defended the package saying 'If the company does well, I will do well,' but avoided justifying his salary in context of unpaid moderators who provide essential platform moderation.

During the June 2023 Reddit API controversy, CEO Steve Huffman called protesting volunteer moderators 'landed gentry,' comparing them unfavorably to democratically accountable leaders. Despite relying on unpaid moderator labor estimated at 466 hours per day ($3.4M annually at $20/hour), Huffman refused to compensate them or invest in paid moderation. On June 22, Reddit began pressuring subreddits continuing their blackout to reopen, threatening to install new moderators. Huffman dismissed the protest of 8,500+ subreddits as a 'small group' that is 'very upset' and said the blackout 'will pass.' The stance demonstrated contempt for volunteer labor essential to Reddit's platform while extracting value from their unpaid work.

In June 2023, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told employees that Apollo developer Christian Selig was blackmailing the company for $10 million. Selig publicly refuted the claim with audio recordings of his conversation with a Reddit employee that disproved the extortion allegation. In a June 9, 2023 AMA, Huffman doubled down, criticizing Selig for 'recording and leaking a private phone call' and saying he didn't know how Reddit could do business with him. The false accusation appeared to be retaliation against Selig for publicly disclosing Reddit's prohibitive API pricing that would force Apollo to shut down.