Reddit's morality play

In book 'We Are The Nerds', author Christine Lagorio-Chafkin recounts the rise of Reddit as the oft-heard story of unexpected start-up success that then waded into controversy

At a time when tech giants like Google and Facebook are facing increasing scrutiny from governments over both the content on their platforms and their business activities, one website, no less popular but managing nevertheless to operate under the radar, has continued to grow its user base with some voluntary firefighting. 

Reddit was founded in 2005 by Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman, both graduates from the University of Virginia, as a space where users could coalesce around similar interests. The fora that resulted, called subreddits, soon exploded. Users shared their views on everything, from politics (r/politics) to education (r/SAT) to more