Reddit Inc. chief executive Steve Huffman on Sunday reiterated his praise for the r / WallStreetBets forum, which has posted “meme stocks” on Wall Street in recent weeks – although he said he did not receive his own financial advice.
At a congressional hearing last week, Huffman said he was proud of Reddit’s role in the frenzy that sent shares of GameStop Corp. GME,
and AMC Entertainment AMC,
among other very short-circuited, growing stocks. After falling back to earth, GameStop shares rose again last week, up 150%, again attributed to the Reddit conversation.
In an interview with “Axios on HBO” aired Sunday night, Huffman expanded on the role of WallStreetBets: “That community exposed a gap between those who have access to financial markets and those who are outside,” he told Axios. “In WallStreetBets you see a community, among many things, that gets – or tries to get – into that unit.”
At last week’s hearing, Huffman went so far as to say that Reddit is one of the best places to receive financial advice, “because it has to be accepted by many thousands of people before it can get that visibility vote.”
However, when asked by Axios if he took any financial advice from the Reddit forums, Huffman said no.
“No, I’m very financially conservative in my personal life,” he said. “Because Reddit is a growing business, it’s an extremely high risk, so it’s a risk enough for me personally.”
In the interview, Huffman also supported the moderation system of the Reddit forum and said that the company will continue to allow pornography on its platform, as long as it is not exploitative. “You can look [porn] just as exploitative. And, indeed, a big part of that is, ”Huffman said. “And this is not the content we want on Reddit. But there is another aspect that is empowered. And these are people who share stories about themselves, images about themselves. And we perfectly support this. ”