FT interviews Alexis Ohanian on Reddit, hate, and Serena

[DrBanneker]

There is an interesting interview in the Financial Times with Alexis Ohaninan, founder and chairman (again) of Reddit, and husband of Serena Williams. I am posting some excerpts since there has been a lot of debate on the role of Reddit in hate/alt-right type speech on the Internet and whether his marriage to Serena would affect that. For the record, I haven't ever been against them or their relationship and actually hoped Serena would inject some sympathy or consciousness (for lack of better words) into the Silicon Valley community. But maybe I was incorrect? I encourage everyone to read the full article (though you may hit their pay wall if you have viewed other FT articles).

Full article

Excerpt on Armenian heritage

Ohanian and I have a common interest: cultural identity. We are both half-Armenian. We realise that we were both sent as children to Camp Nubar, an Armenian camp in upstate New York, to discover our heritage. Neither of us felt Armenian enough to fit in...

“I was both proud and heartbroken when I found my first Armenian Genocide denier post on Reddit. I was proud in the sense that, wow, we’re truly a global platform. And then heartbroken, because goddamnit, we’re truly a global platform and there are lots of people who believe this awful state-sponsored thing.”

And you can’t delete it, I say.

“And we didn’t,” he says. “I think we have to ultimately have more conversations and not less"

He did go to Armenia and finance some companies after Reddit got him his first millions

Excerpt on Reddit and hate

Upon returning, Ohanian says they instated an “anti-evil” team. The company built software that uses machine learning to anticipate how trolls shift offensive keywords.

What is your responsibility? I ask. What is Reddit’s? Where is the line? “I feel like I bring this up almost every board meeting, and have been for the last few years,” he says. “I’m proud of a lot of progress that the team made at Reddit. I think there’s still overwhelming good that these platforms create that by nature never makes headlines. But one of the best advantages to Reddit’s dark ages was that it created awareness in 2014 of the level of responsibility we need to have.”

“I’m not trying to trivialise this issue,” he continues, “but how do we make sure that conversation happens in a constructive way? Sometimes upsetting, and that’s OK, but still a place where people can come share, not be harassed, feel safe enough. I don’t think we ever find that balance.”

Excerpt on Serena and race (seriously??)

I ask whether he and Serena ever talk about that conflict, between his advocacy for social change and his creation of a platform that gives her trolls and critics space to radicalise.

“It hasn’t come up,” he says. As he searches for an answer, I realise he either doesn’t see these things as incongruous, or he just doesn’t think it’s that deep. “We’ll talk broadly about . . . ” he stops. “I mean all of . . . ”

He reframes again.

“The sad reality is, you don’t have to look very far on a news article, Instagram post or Twitter post to find these comments about her. And so we talk broadly about it because it’s clearly something that she has been able to somehow process and put out of mind. But her idea of consuming content on the internet is the exact opposite of mine. She has zero interest. There’s the athlete thing where you don’t want to read any press about you, but she does not consume any press or any social media. She’s just there to produce content and then walk away.”

I used to get pitched at restaurants and walking down streets. People were like, can I tell you about my start-up? Now people will just be like, I love your wife!’ He and Serena have a two-year-old daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Jr, who has her own Instagram and Twitter accounts, which they run. It also seems likely — he doesn’t confirm — that he runs social accounts for her doll, Qai Qai, posed in various dramatic predicaments.

What shocks me more than him dodging it (he is running Reddit after all) is he says she doesn't bring it up. Sadly while I can't blame her for avoiding it, it seems advocating against it isn't in the cards either. I guess she will take the "pro-woman" platform and that's it.
Best of luck to them as a couple and parents though.

 

[thatrapsfan]

Lunch with the FT is one of the best features in print.

 

[Dorian Breh]

Why even give the interview if you're not gonna say shyt

But I guess that's the kind of guy he is. I can't imagine avoiding topics with my wife and putting my head in the sand.

 

[MajesticLion]

In fairness to her, she couldn't function as an athlete, much less on the standard shes always had for herself, if she didn't filter out all the negativity.


What's troubling is that she raced off and got married and had a child thinking that she'd be forever immune from said negativity. In doing so she's hastened the coming day she'd no longer be in that "untouchable" athlete bubble, and have to face everything like everyday people. That won't be pretty. That public freakout in the Osaka match does not bode well, not one bit.

And she's having her child raised in this bubble.

 

[DrBanneker]

In fairness to her, she couldn't function as an athlete, much less on the standard shes always had for herself, if she didn't filter out all the negativity.

I co-sign this since I would filter that shyt out too. She has the obligation to perform to her standards, not battle trolls. I just think that though you can't let it get to you, trying to act like it doesn't merit discussion or can just be ignored, especially the struggle both her, her sister, and father went through is kind of saddening. There is a difference between not letting if affect you and trying to escape it.

She has her own life though and we (Black people) can't claim to own any individual. We have no idea the mental walls she probably had to erect just to function from a young age. I just hope her legacy isn't in vain and those that follow her won't get the same hate because she didn't speak out.

 

[MajesticLion]

I co-sign this since I would filter that shyt out too. She has the obligation to perform to her standards, not battle trolls. I just think that though you can't let it get to you, trying to act like it doesn't merit discussion or can just be ignored, especially the struggle both her, her sister, and father went through is kind of saddening. There is a difference between not letting if affect you and trying to escape it.

She has her own life though and we (Black people) can't claim to own any individual. We have no idea the mental walls she probably had to erect just to function from a young age. I just hope her legacy isn't in vain and those that follow her won't get the same hate because she didn't speak out.

And therein lies the rub: there is no escaping it. That's what family ties are for, to help you stand firm against all the garbage programming. That's why there is non-stop temptation and distraction thrown at people on this level, to single them out from their people and make them more easily influenced and controlled.

And that's why it's a singularly bad idea to look to athletes and entertainers as leadership; they're on a different kind of frontline than everybody else, and are more prone to these kinds of failures.

 

[DrBanneker]

And therein lies the rub: there is no escaping it. That's what family ties are for, to help you stand firm against all the garbage programming. That's why there is non-stop temptation and distraction thrown at people on this level, to single them out from their people and make them more easily influenced and controlled.

And that's why it's a singularly bad idea to look to athletes and entertainers as leadership; they're on a different kind of frontline than everybody else, and are more prone to these kinds of failures.

Sadly it works. Once you get on that level and that money we get fewer and fewer and it is hard to maintain those authentic connections without offending your new "friends".

 

[Humble (Not) Mike Tyson]

 

[DrBanneker]

Twitter was made to elevate bird brain comments, what else do we expect?

 

[BushidoBrown]

 

[Originalman]

The mental gymnastics performed by blue check twitter idiots.

 

[Originalman]

Here is the thing. IMO I can tell more about a man in how he defends his wife, kids and mother than anything else.

IMO that boy got him a meal ticket and thats all he cares about. I said from the start that dude hit a lick went in and got Serena pregnant and was doing cart wheels once he found out.


Cause he hit a fukking lick. This basically like when conchita got Kobe to walk down the Aisle with her.

This was basically dude once he got Serene pregnant..