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A sourced chronology of Reddit as a company — its founding, owners, leadership changes, product shifts, funding rounds, legal events and content-policy milestones from 2005 to today. Filter by type.
58 milestones
Reddit merged with Infogami, a startup founded by Aaron Swartz that was also part of Y Combinator. The combined company operated under the parent name Not A Bug, and Swartz joined Reddit as an equal partner. Swartz's involvement shaped early development of the site's codebase.
SourceSteve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, recent University of Virginia graduates, launched Reddit as part of the first Y Combinator startup batch funded by Paul Graham. The site began as a simple link-aggregation and voting platform. Y Combinator's seed funding and mentorship were foundational to its creation.
SourceCondé Nast Publications, a division of Advance Publications, acquired Reddit roughly sixteen months after its founding. Reported figures placed the deal in the range of $10–20 million. The acquisition moved the small startup under a major media conglomerate and relocated the team to San Francisco.
SourceAaron Swartz left Reddit in early 2007, a few months after the Condé Nast acquisition. Accounts describe his departure as effectively being fired after he became disengaged from the corporate environment. Swartz went on to become a prominent open-internet activist before his death in 2013.
SourceReddit released the majority of its source code under an open-source license, allowing the public to inspect and contribute to the platform's code. The move reflected the site's roots in internet-freedom culture. It also enabled outside developers to build on and audit the platform.
SourceReddit introduced the ability for any user to create their own subreddit, decentralizing community creation away from staff. This feature transformed the site from a single feed into a sprawling network of self-governing communities. It became the structural foundation of Reddit's growth and its later moderation challenges.
SourceFounders Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian departed Reddit after fulfilling their post-acquisition commitments to Condé Nast. The site was subsequently run by a small team and later by hired executives. Both founders would return to the company years later in 2014 and 2015.
SourceReddit introduced Reddit Gold, a paid premium membership offering extra features and a way for users to support the site financially. The launch came as the platform struggled with the cost of rapid growth. It marked an early attempt to build direct user-funded revenue.
SourceReddit experienced explosive traffic growth in 2010, with monthly pageviews climbing into the hundreds of millions and then billions over the following year. The surge reflected the platform's rising cultural prominence. Rapid scaling put strain on the small team operating under Condé Nast.
SourceReddit closed the r/jailbait subreddit on October 11, 2011, days after CNN's Anderson Cooper devoted a segment to condemning the community for hosting sexualized images of minors. The ban followed an incident in which a user solicited nude images of an underage girl. It was one of Reddit's first high-profile content removals driven by outside pressure.
SourceReddit was spun out from Condé Nast to operate as an independent subsidiary of parent company Advance Publications. The restructuring gave Reddit its own board and greater operational autonomy. It set the stage for later outside investment and an independent corporate identity.
SourceReddit went dark for 12 hours on January 18, 2012, joining a coordinated online protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PIPA. The action helped galvanize public opposition that contributed to the bills being shelved. It established Reddit as an influential force in internet-policy activism.
SourceGawker journalist Adrian Chen publicly identified Michael Brutsch as 'Violentacrez,' a notorious moderator behind r/creepshots and other offensive subreddits, leading to Brutsch losing his job. The exposure ignited a fierce debate over anonymity, free speech, and Reddit's tolerance of toxic communities. Some subreddits banned links to Gawker in protest.
SourceFormer Facebook engineering director Yishan Wong was named CEO of Reddit, taking over leadership of the independent Advance subsidiary. His tenure was defined by a strongly pro-free-speech moderation stance. He led the company until his resignation in late 2014.
SourceIn the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, Reddit users on r/findbostonbombers wrongly identified innocent people as suspects, causing real-world harm. General manager Erik Martin later issued a public apology on behalf of the company. The episode became a cautionary example of crowdsourced investigation gone wrong.
SourceCo-founder Alexis Ohanian rejoined Reddit full-time as executive chairman alongside the appointment of interim CEO Ellen Pao. His return restored founder involvement at the leadership level after years away. Ohanian would remain a central figure in the company's direction through subsequent years.
SourceStolen private nude photos of celebrities were widely distributed through the r/TheFappening subreddit, drawing intense media scrutiny over Reddit hosting non-consensual intimate imagery. Reddit eventually banned the subreddit, citing legal exposure and processing costs rather than principle. The episode pressured the company toward formal anti-harassment policy.
SourceCEO Yishan Wong published a blog post articulating Reddit's hands-off philosophy, declaring that the company would defend free speech and not ban subreddits merely for being objectionable. The statement defined the site's permissive moderation posture during this era. It would be repeatedly cited as the company later reversed course.
SourceCEO Yishan Wong abruptly resigned, reportedly over a dispute about office relocation. Ellen Pao was named interim CEO and Alexis Ohanian returned as executive chairman. The leadership change set up a turbulent period that would soon test Reddit's relationship with its users.
SourceReddit raised approximately $50 million in a funding round led by Y Combinator president Sam Altman, with participation from investors including Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel. The deal notably included a pledge to share 10% of equity with the user community, though that plan was never fully realized. It valued Reddit at roughly $500 million.
SourceThe firing of popular AMA coordinator Victoria Taylor prompted hundreds of subreddits to go private in protest, an event dubbed 'AMAgeddon.' Amid the revolt and a petition for her removal, interim CEO Ellen Pao resigned. Co-founder Steve Huffman returned as CEO to replace her.
SourceUnder interim CEO Ellen Pao, Reddit announced its first formal policy prohibiting the posting of explicit photos and videos without the subject's consent. The rule was a direct response to the celebrity-photo leaks of 2014. It marked Reddit's first significant step toward proactive content moderation.
SourceUnder returning CEO Steve Huffman, Reddit banned the racist subreddit r/CoonTown and several others, and rolled out a revised content policy. The update introduced 'quarantine,' a tool to wall off offensive but not banned communities behind warnings and restrictions. It established a tiered approach to moderation that Reddit would use for years.
SourceReddit banned r/fatpeoplehate along with several other subreddits for violating its new harassment policy by targeting individuals. The bans triggered a significant user backlash and accusations of censorship, much of it directed at CEO Ellen Pao. The episode escalated tensions between Reddit's administration and parts of its community.
SourceReddit banned the r/pizzagate subreddit, which promoted a debunked conspiracy theory alleging a child-trafficking ring tied to Democratic figures. The company cited its policy against posting personal information after users doxxed individuals named in the theory. The ban prompted backlash and contributed to the same week's comment-editing controversy.
SourceReddit released its first official native apps for iOS and Android, having previously relied on the mobile web and acquired third-party apps. The launch was part of a push to grow and retain a mobile user base. It set the stage for later tensions with independent app developers over API access.
SourceCEO Steve Huffman admitted to using admin powers to secretly edit comments by r/The_Donald users that insulted him, swapping 'spez' for the names of the subreddit's moderators. The edits left no visible trace, raising alarm about the integrity of user content on the platform. Huffman acknowledged the lapse and said it would not recur.
SourceReddit banned the r/altright subreddit, a hub for the alt-right movement, citing repeated violations of its policy against posting personal and confidential information. It was an early sign of the company tightening enforcement against extremist communities. The ban foreshadowed a broader crackdown later in the year.
SourceIn the wake of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Reddit banned several far-right and neo-Nazi subreddits, including r/Physical_Removal, for promoting or glorifying violence. The action was part of a wider tech-industry response to white-nationalist content. It reflected mounting pressure on platforms to police extremism.
SourceReddit raised $200 million in a Series C funding round led by Advance Publications, with participation from Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, and others. The round valued the company at approximately $1.8 billion. The capital was earmarked partly to fund a major redesign and video features.
SourceReddit launched r/popular, a curated front-page feed designed to show trending content while filtering out NSFW and highly divisive communities. It effectively replaced the long-standing system of default subreddits assigned to new users. The change gave Reddit more editorial control over what newcomers saw first.
SourceReddit began work on the first major overhaul of its website design in roughly a decade, aiming to modernize the famously utilitarian interface and attract mainstream users. The redesign introduced card and compact views and a more polished layout. It proved divisive among longtime users, many of whom preferred the legacy 'old.reddit' interface.
SourceReddit updated its content policy to explicitly prohibit content that encourages, glorifies, or incites violence against people or animals. The rollout was accompanied by a large purge of subreddits, including r/Nazi and other communities, that breached the new rule. It significantly expanded the scope of Reddit's prohibited content.
SourceOn February 7, 2018, Reddit shut down r/deepfakes and related communities (r/deepfakesnsfw, r/nsfwdeepfakes) that traded AI-generated face-swapped celebrity pornography. The company simultaneously rewrote its involuntary-pornography rule to explicitly prohibit faked sexual images created or posted without the subject's consent, splitting it into a distinct policy. The move followed similar crackdowns by Pornhub, Twitter, and Discord.
SourceOn September 12, 2018, Reddit banned r/greatawakening, then the main hub for the QAnon conspiracy theory with more than 54,000 followers, along with at least six other Q-related communities including r/QProofs and r/thestorm. Reddit cited repeated content-policy violations involving incitement to violence, harassment, and posting personal information. The bans followed threats against public figures circulated in the communities.
SourceIn 2018 Reddit began rolling out a substantial redesign of its desktop site, the first major visual overhaul since 2008, featuring a left-hand subreddit menu and card- and classic-view layouts. The new design was gradually made the default for users over the following period, while the legacy interface remained available at old.reddit.com.
SourceReddit confirmed a roughly $300 million funding round that included a $150 million investment led by China's Tencent, valuing the company at about $3 billion, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, and Sequoia. The Tencent stake drew backlash from users worried about Chinese censorship; redditors flooded r/pics with images sensitive in China, such as Winnie the Pooh and Tiananmen Square's 'Tank Man.' Observers noted Tencent's stake was not a controlling interest.
SourceOn June 26, 2019, Reddit quarantined r/The_Donald, the pro-Trump community with more than 754,000 subscribers, citing repeated threats of violence against police and public officials. The quarantine placed a warning interstitial in front of the subreddit and removed its content from search and recommendations. It was widely seen as a precursor to the community's eventual full ban in 2020.
SourceOn June 29, 2020, Reddit overhauled its content policy with an explicit rule (Rule 1) banning communities and users that promote hate based on identity or vulnerability, and simultaneously removed about 2,000 subreddits. The purge included the pro-Trump r/The_Donald and the left-wing r/ChapoTrapHouse, both previously quarantined. Reddit said most of the banned communities were already inactive.
SourceAmid nationwide protests following the killing of George Floyd, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian resigned from the company's board in early June 2020 and publicly urged that he be replaced by a Black candidate. Reddit then named Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel, becoming the company's first Black board member. Ohanian pledged to direct future gains on his Reddit stock toward serving the Black community.
SourceIn March 2021, hundreds of subreddits went private to protest Reddit's hiring of UK activist Aimee Challenor as an admin and the suspension of users and moderators who referenced her past. The protest grew after r/ukpolitics moderators were actioned for linking an article naming her, with nearly 600 communities going dark, including r/Music and r/apple. On March 24, Reddit confirmed it had parted ways with Challenor.
SourceOn December 15, 2021, Reddit announced it had confidentially submitted a draft registration statement (Form S-1) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering. At the time the company was valued at more than $10 billion, and the filing did not disclose share counts or pricing. The IPO would ultimately not occur until March 2024.
SourceRetail investors coordinating on r/wallstreetbets drove GameStop's stock from around $17 in early January 2021 to an intraday high near $483 on January 28, squeezing hedge funds that had shorted the stock. On January 28 several brokers including Robinhood restricted buying, drawing regulatory and congressional scrutiny. The episode made Reddit a household name in finance and preceded a sharp jump in its private valuation.
SourceOn September 1, 2021, Reddit banned r/NoNewNormal, one of the largest COVID-19 misinformation communities, and quarantined 54 other subreddits flagged for COVID-related content. Reddit said r/NoNewNormal was banned for brigading, citing signals it was the source of around 80 brigades in the prior 30 days. The action followed a wave of moderator protests demanding tougher enforcement on pandemic misinformation.
SourceIn August 2021, Reddit disclosed it had raised $410 million in a Series F round led by Fidelity Management, valuing the company at more than $10 billion and with plans to raise up to $700 million total. The raise roughly doubled the ~$6 billion valuation Reddit reached earlier in 2021 after the GameStop saga, and the company signaled an international expansion push.
SourceBeginning June 12, 2023, more than 8,000 subreddits went private or restricted in protest of Reddit's API pricing, which threatened third-party apps. CEO Steve Huffman dismissed the protest in a leaked internal memo, telling staff it 'will pass,' a stance that hardened thousands of communities into indefinite blackouts. The dispute forced popular apps Apollo, Reddit is Fun, and Sync to announce shutdowns by June 30.
SourceOn April 18, 2023, Reddit announced it would begin charging for access to its API, which had been free since 2008, framing the move around the value of its data ahead of a potential IPO. The pricing, set at $0.24 per 1,000 API calls effective July 1, was projected to cost popular third-party clients millions of dollars per year. The announcement set off a months-long conflict with developers and moderators.
SourceOn July 13, 2023, Reddit announced it was discontinuing its Gold awards and coins system, with the ability to buy them disappearing immediately and existing balances usable only through September 12. The company said it was simplifying the platform, noting users found the 50-plus award types cluttered. Past purchases were non-refundable, frustrating users, and Reddit promised a new awarding system to follow.
SourceIn its Q3 2024 results announced in late October, Reddit reported GAAP net income of $29.9 million on revenue of $348.4 million, up 68% year over year, marking its first quarter of profitability after going public. Daily active uniques reached an all-time high of about 97.2 million, up 47% year over year. The results sent the stock sharply higher and validated Reddit's advertising and data-licensing model.
SourceIn February 2024, ahead of its IPO, Reddit confirmed a data-licensing deal with Google reportedly worth about $60 million per year, allowing Google to train AI models and improve Search using Reddit content. The arrangement also gave Reddit access to Google AI models for internal features such as site search. It was Reddit's first major publicly reported AI-licensing agreement.
SourceFollowing the December 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson, Reddit banned several subreddits devoted to suspect Luigi Mangione, including r/LuigiMangione and r/LuigiFever, and removed copies of his alleged manifesto. Reddit said the bans were for behavior violations such as incitement or glorification of violence rather than the topic itself, and warned users who upvoted rule-breaking content. Some related communities, such as r/FreeLuigi, remained online.
SourceOn May 16, 2024, Reddit and OpenAI announced a partnership giving OpenAI access to Reddit's Data API to surface Reddit content in ChatGPT and other products, while OpenAI became a Reddit advertising partner. The companies also agreed to build AI-powered features for Reddit users and moderators. Reddit's stock jumped as much as 15% in late trading; OpenAI noted CEO Sam Altman is a Reddit shareholder and that the deal was approved by OpenAI's independent board.
SourceOn December 9, 2024, Reddit began testing Reddit Answers, an AI feature that generates curated summaries of relevant on-platform discussions with links to source posts and communities. Built on Reddit's search architecture using models from OpenAI and Google Cloud, the tool draws only from Reddit content rather than the open web. Reddit framed search and AI answers as a focused growth investment for 2025.
SourceReddit priced its IPO at $34 per share on March 20, 2024, the top of its range, raising about $748 million at a fully diluted valuation of roughly $6.4 billion. Shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker RDDT on March 21 and popped 48% to close at $50.44, lifting the market capitalization to about $9.5 billion. The offering reserved shares for longtime moderators and users.
SourceIn Q1 2025 results announced in May, Reddit reported revenue up 61% year over year to $392.4 million and net income of $26.2 million, a sharp turnaround from a large prior-year loss tied to IPO-related stock charges. Daily active uniques reached 108.1 million, up 31%, while data-licensing and other revenue grew strongly. The results underscored Reddit's transition to a consistently profitable public company.
SourceOn October 22, 2025, Reddit filed a federal lawsuit in the Southern District of New York against Perplexity AI and three data-scraping firms, Oxylabs, AWMProxy, and SerpApi, alleging violations of the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions plus unjust enrichment and unfair competition. Reddit claimed the defendants scraped its content from Google search results and that a 'honeypot' post appeared in Perplexity's answer engine within hours. Perplexity denied wrongdoing, calling its practices fair use of publicly available data.
SourceThe TAKE IT DOWN Act, signed into federal law on May 19, 2025, criminalizes nonconsensual publication of intimate images, including AI deepfakes, and requires covered platforms like Reddit to honor takedown requests within 48 hours by May 2026. Reddit, which already bans non-consensual intimate imagery, said it operates a compliant reporting form and participates in cross-industry efforts such as StopNCII. Noncompliant platforms face FTC enforcement.
SourceOn February 3, 2025, Reddit imposed a 72-hour ban on r/WhitePeopleTwitter, citing a prevalence of violent content and rules against inciting violence and doxing. The action came after an X account screenshotted comments about Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, prompting Musk to claim the community had 'broken the law.' The episode drew criticism that Reddit had acted under political pressure.
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