Alexis Ohanian, the tech entrepreneur widely known as the co-founder of Reddit, is opening up about the decision that led him to step away from the platform he helped build.
Speaking about his time on Reddit’s board to The Times, Ohanian says the platform’s handling of hateful content pushed him to a point where staying no longer felt right.
Ohanian and co-founder Steve Huffman launched Reddit in 2005 after meeting at the University of Virginia. Backed early by Y Combinator, the site quickly grew into a massive network of user-run communities known as Subreddits.
“It was my baby,” Ohanian said, reflecting on the years he spent building the platform from the ground up. However, as Reddit expanded and its user base grew to hundreds of millions, Ohanian says he found himself increasingly uneasy with how the site handled some of the more disturbing aspects of its forum system.
One flashpoint involved Subreddits that circulated racist content, and another was dedicated to graphic videos of real-world deaths — a community once known as r/WatchPeopleDie.
Ohanian says he pushed for these spaces to be banned outright, but met resistance from leadership who argued that removing them would interfere with Reddit’s commitment to “free speech.”
“There were board meetings I came back from almost feeling gaslit,” Ohanian said. He described arguing against the idea that such communities were necessary or beneficial. According to him, one justification for keeping the death-related forum was that it could be “helpful for people suffering from PTSD.”
Ohanian’s response: “I did not believe it.”
Reddit eventually quarantined and later removed the r/WatchPeopleDie community after users shared footage of the 2019 Christchurch massacre, but Ohanian says the experience confirmed that change from within was unlikely.
In June 2020, amid nationwide conversations about racial justice, he resigned from Reddit’s board and urged the company to appoint a Black board member in his place. “I could no longer feel proud about what I was building at Reddit,” he said.
Ohanian also points to his family as a key influence. Married to tennis champion Serena Williams and the father of two daughters, he says the online hostility aimed at Black women — on Reddit and beyond — hit differently at home. He imagined one day being asked by his daughter what he did to challenge hateful environments. “I wanted to be able to give her a great answer,” he explained.
Since leaving Reddit, Ohanian has focused on venture investments, including primary backing in women’s sports.
As for walking away from a company now valued in the tens of billions? Ohanian is unfazed: “The price of a clear conscience is invaluable.”