‘I have just endured one of the largest trolling attacks in history’: Ellen Pao hits back

HOUNDED out of her $230,000 job by “one of the largest trolling attacks in history”, former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao has taken a big swipe.

ELLEN Pao has taken an extraordinary swipe at the Reddit “trolls” who just hounded her out of a $230,000-a-year job.

A week after quitting as CEO of the site, Pao has used a column in The Washington Post to shame redditors who bullied and made death threats against her.

“I have just endured one of the largest trolling attacks in history,” she wrote.

“The foundations of the internet were laid on free expression, but the founders just did not understand how effective their creation would be for the coordination and amplification of harassing behaviour. Or that the users who were the biggest bullies would be rewarded with attention for their behaviour. Or that young people would come to see this bullying as the norm — as something to emulate in an effort to one-up each other.

“The trolls are winning.”

Pao, a former lawyer and qualified engineer, took over as interim CEO of Reddit in November, moving to establish strict anti-harassment policies and removing revenge porn from the site.

She soon became a hate figure among some users, who called her a threat to free speech and subjected her to vile racist and sexist attacks, including giving her the nickname “Chairman Pao.”

She resigned last Friday after an online petition calling for her to go garnered more than 200,000 signatures.

Defending her tenure, Pao said Reddit had tried to fight internet bullying “from the trenches” in an “incremental and thoughtful fashion”.

“[But] after making these policy changes to prevent and ban harassment, I, along with several colleagues, was targeted with harassing messages, attempts to post my private information online and death threats. These were attempts to demean, shame and scare us into silence.

“No one has figured out the best place to draw the line between bad and ugly — or whether that line can support a viable business model.”

Adding fuel to the firestorm engulfing Pao was a lawsuit she filed against a former Silicon Valley employer, who she accused of failing to promote her because of her gender and race. She also accused the San Francisco venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers of sacking her in retaliation when she complained.

She sued for $16 million but lost the case last month and was ordered to pay $US276,000 in legal costs. Detractors seized on the decision, accusing her of a money grab motivated by her husband’s financial problems.

Pao said the threats against her became “really violent”, but then something unexpected happened.

“Soon, I was receiving hundreds of messages a day, and at one point thousands. These messages were thoughtful, well-written and heartfelt, in stark contrast to the trolling messages, which were usually made up of little more than four-letter words. Many shared their own stories of harassment and thanked us for our stance.

“Some apologised for their own trollish behaviour and promised they had reformed.

“In the battle for the internet, the power of humanity to overcome hate gives me hope. I’m rooting for the humans over the trolls. I know we can win.”

Originally published as ‘I have just endured one of the largest trolling attacks in history’: Ellen Pao hits back