Steve Huffman (above), the CEO of Reddit, acknowledged this week that he edited negative posts written about him on his site from Donald Trump supporters

The CEO of the popular social media platform Reddit has acknowledged editing comments from Donald Trump supporters that were critical of him on the site.

Steve Huffman, one of Reddit's co-founders, wrote a post on his site in which he admitted to editing abusive posts that targeted him.

'Yep. I messed with the 'f*** u/spez' comments, replacing 'spez' with r/the_donald mods for about an hour,' he wrote.

'It's been a long week here trying to unwind the r/pizzagate stuff.'

'As much as we try to maintain a good relationship with you all, it does get old getting called a pedophile constantly.'

'As the CEO, I shouldn't play such games, and it's all fixed now. Our community team is pretty pissed at me, so I most assuredly won't do this again.'

'Pizzagate' is a reference to a local Washington, D.C., pizzeria that was the subject of a fake news report that alleged it to be the center of a pedophilia ring run by Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager, John Podesta.

The false story went viral online, and some Reddit users opened up a subreddit page on which posters tried to prove its veracity.

Huffman wrote that he had suffered through 'a long week' in the wake of the 'pizzagate' scandal and vowed not to edit posts from users again

Reddit users responded angrily to Huffman's post, accusing him of 'compromising the integrity of a website used by millions'

'I'm hesitant to join any controversial topic now,' wrote another Reddit user, as Huffman opened himself up to charges of censorship

'Unless you change the rules upfront, what you did compromises everything about this website,' wrote another user. 'You really screwed up here'

As a result of the story, the owner of the Comet Ping Pong pizza place and his employees began receiving threatening phone calls and messages on social media.

Reddit banned the 'pizzagate' conspiracy board on Tuesday.

It had agreed to a request by the pizza shop's owner, James Alefantis, who reached out to Reddit and other social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube in order to help stop the spread of the conspiracy theories, The Washington Post reported.

Huffman was criticized by users on his site who say that he overstepped his bounds by censoring posts.

'Pizzagate' is a reference to a fake story which alleged that a Washington, D.C., pizza shop owned by James Alefantis (left) was used as a secret pedophile ring run by Hillary Clinton

'Listen man, I'm not the type that would type f anyone, but unless you change the rules upfront what you did compromises everything about this website,' wrote one Reddit poster.

'You really screwed up here.'

Huffman invited backlash from pro-Trump supporters when his company banned conspiracy theory boards that sought to verify the 'pizzagate' story

'I don't normally follow this sub or its politics, but came upon this post and was surprised,' another Reddit user wrote.

'I was hoping it wasn't really the reddit admins that did it, but he just confirmed it.'

'I'm hesitant to join any controversial topic now. It's one thing if a post is deleted, but another when a precedent is set that content can be changed without the author knowing.'

'It's been a long week' is my excuse for falling asleep at my desk, not compromising the integrity of a website used by millions,' another Reddit user wrote.

The controversy surrounding Reddit is a byproduct of the struggle to walk the delicate balance of combating the phenomenon of fake news while also protecting freedom of speech.

Earlier this week, one of the biggest digital advertising services in the world was accused of stifling free speech after banning right-wing news site Breitbart from its platform for violating its rules against hate speech.

AppNexus said Breitbart, the outlet once led by Steve Bannon, now Trump's chief strategist, had used racial slurs and derogatory terms related to sexual orientation on its site.

The advertising platform feared such language could incite violence against those groups, but it did not give examples of the 'hate speech'.

Supporters of Breitbart were quick to seize on the move however, claiming it was an assault on the first amendment.

One Twitter user wrote: '@AppNexus I hope business owners supporting freedom of speech will refuse your service. You r a threat to democracy.

'@AppNexus... no free speech... no business for you!,' another wrote.

'New neo-Marxist attacks on conservative sites. @AppNexus to bar ads on Breitbart. #ripjournalism.'

'@AppNexus = #Censorship, Bi-Coastal Liberals Are Haters Who HATE #FreeSpeech.'

The unsubstantiated rumors about the pizza shop spread just as online giants like Facebook and Google have come under fire for not cracking down on fake news sites being shared on their networks.

Last week both Google and Facebook announced plans to fight the spread of fake news by placing tighter restrictions on how such sites make money from advertising.