When news broke late last week that Ellen Pao had left Reddit, it was hard to imagine a scenario regarding the link-sharing community that could be more symbolic. Though Pao, the interim CEO of the site, was said to have left amicably, after being viciously harassed and attacked on the site—first for a gender discrimination suit, then her choices as CEO, particularly the firing of a prominent moderator—Pao, a woman of color, was ushered out of Reddit all in the name of "growth." It was a discomfiting image.

It was also more complicated than that. In a strange, almost sleazy confessional post on the site, former Reddit CEO Yishan Wong revealed details of internal discussions around policy: that though Pao was vilified on the site for being responsible for the shutdown of various hate sections—and thus being opposed to free speech—she was in fact willing to let the seedier parts of Reddit continue to exist, and instead promote the site's better portions. Pao, it turns out, wasn't the enemy.

Despite the fact that Pao was the wrong target for Reddit's ire, her departure seems to have still quieted the upheaval. Yet its symbolism persists. Reddit’s anything-goes mentality—where users share, vote upon, and discuss links, everything from memes to philosophy, porn to politics—is famously libertarian. At its heart is the idea that Reddit should be a home to content of any kind, and the site's most vocal users valorize both free speech and the disposable, anonymous user accounts that enable it. The hope, as Reddit board chairman Sam Altman wrote of Pao's exit, is to have Reddit be the place where "the most open and honest conversations with the entire world can happen." According to the board, Pao's treatment was an aberration—a problem of harassment, communication, and moderation they will soon solve. But Reddit was always going to be a home for hatred. Not only is its culture toxic, but because the mantra of free speech, when applied uncritically, will always lead to a proliferation of the very worst kinds of thought. In his post, Wong suggested that the site moved toward a more strictly literal free speech policy because, for example, " allowing creepers to post (anonymized) pictures of women taken in public... was a small price to pay for making it clear that we were a place welcoming of all opinions and discourse."

And Wong’s admission—that the free speech policy he instituted created Reddit’s poisonous culture—has been borne out. Some simple facts: Reddit is overwhelmingly male; of its 160 million monthly users, 120 million are men. It is now among the English-speaking world's largest homes of white supremacy. It has leaked nude photos, hosting a hacked archive of celebrity pictures where stolen images of many stars were leaked and spread. The forum also plays host to significant portions of the men’s rights movement, the sexist harassment campaign Gamergate, and, until recently, not only was something named "r/fatpeoplehate" was one of its most popular boards, but sections with names like r/coontown were allowed to happily exist. It's true that are thousands of other genuinely interesting and lively subreddits. But they sit side-by-side with entirely more pernicious ones.

Reddit's emphasis on free speech draws in and attracts those who wish to discuss racist, sexist, homo- or transphobic, or other similarly prejudiced views—it’s a tacit encouragement of hateful views. There are, after all, few other spaces online with as many users and as much credibility in which such views are not only welcomed, but also visible. In an era when it is becoming marginally more difficult for people to be publically prejudiced, Reddit's free-for-all mentality isn't just a slogan, but a beacon that says "your ideology has a home here." On the site, those who feel their right to be racists or sexists is being marginalized find a place to express themselves, and a place where they can gather, find in strength in numbers, and reinforce their bigoted views. Representation, after all, matters.