Reddit's new CEO didn't waste any time before shaking the hornet's nest.

Steve Huffman, the cofounder of Reddit who took over as CEO last week, just one month after a user revolt over community crackdowns, proposed a new set of restrictions on what kind of material and actions are acceptable on the site.

< a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/3djjxw/lets_talk_content_ama/">The new restrictions would be similar to older ones — including a ban on sexually suggestive content of minors and spam — but extend into anything that incites violence against a group or "that harasses, bullies, or abuses an individual or group of people (these behaviors intimidate others into silence)."

It also lays out a framework to create a firewall between regular posts and "NSFW" content such as pornography. The new rules would require users to be logged in and have opted in to see such material. These areas would also not generate any revenue — a hint that Reddit is preparing to ramp up monetization of the site.

The new CEO's announcement touches on what has long been viewed as the third rail of Reddit: reigning in "unfettered free speech." Just before the AMA kicked off, Huffman posted an announcement that the site was considering some new restrictions on what users could post or say publicly on reddit.

During the question-and-answer session, Huffman said that Reddit would be banning the subreddit "/r/raping women" and that "/r/coontown," a notorious subreddit of racism against black people, would be "reclassified" but not banned because it "does not violate our current rules for banning."

instead of clicking to reddit and seeing "WHITE POWER," you click to reddit and see a thing that says "Are you SURE you want to see WHITE PO — tinybaby (@tinybaby) July 16, 2015

Huffaman said in another comment that Reddit will consider banning other subreddits, "the ones that are illegal or cause harm to others."

The changes are not yet official, and are pending the development of new tools to help moderators.

"We won't formally change or policy until we have the tools to support it," Huffman wrote. "Giving moderators better tools to deal with individuals is an important part of this process. Giving our employed community managers additional tools to assist the moderators is also required."

Recent controversy

Both Yishan Wong and Ellen Pao, the two CEOs who ran Reddit while Huffman was away from the company, found themselves embroiled in heated debates in the community and the media over whether and how much to block offensive users and forums.

Pao, in particular, clashed with the community when her administration banned five subreddits (or forums) earlier this year for abusive, hateful behavior. The forums, with offensive names like Fat People Hate and Transfags, inarguably represented the worst of Reddit's content, but, according to certain members, were a product of the best of its ideals to be a breeding ground for all conversations.

Huffman, the original architect behind Reddit, returns with no such high-minded reservations. "We... believe that some communities currently on the platform should not be here at all," he wrote in the prompt for Thursday's discussion. "Neither Alexis [Ohanian] nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech."

Many members of the community were quick to highlight previous statements from the team saying the opposite. "Here's a tip, stop acting like your users are stupid. We aren't," one commenter wrote. "You did in fact champion this place as a bastion of free speech and that's what drew your massive user base."

Steve Huffman, the cofounder and new permanent CEO of Reddit. Video: YouTube, A Total Disruption

All of Reddit's CEOs weigh in on free speech

Huffman isn't the only Reddit CEO speaking candidly about the free speech issue.

Wong, the CEO who resigned abruptly late last year after a dispute over office space, said this week that it was him, not the founders, who formalized a broader free speech policy. More than that, Wong claimed that Pao, the interim CEO and feminist icon who stepped down last week after clashing with the community, was in fact a staunch defender of free speech too.

"On at least two separate occasions, the board pressed [Ellen] to outright ban ALL the hate subreddits in a sweeping purge. She resisted, knowing the community, claiming it would be a shitshow," Wong wrote in a lengthy comment. "Ellen isn't some 'evil, manipulative, out-of-touch incompetent she-devil' as was often depicted."

"Well, now she's gone (you did it reddit!), and [Steve] has the moral authority as a co-founder to move ahead with the purge," Wong continued. "We tried to let you govern yourselves and you failed, so now The Man is going to set some Rules. Admittedly, I can't say I'm terribly upset."

In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post on Thursday, Pao wrote that "the trolls are winning" on Reddit and across the Internet. But she stressed that services like Reddit only have so much ability to curb the abuse.

"No one has figured out the best place to draw the line between bad and ugly — or whether that line can support a viable business model," Pao wrote.

Ellen Pao, interim CEO of Reddit. Image: Flickr, Christopher Michel

Reddit's existential crisis

For Reddit, everything hinges on its success in implementing a clear policy and standards.

The social news site, long viewed as a more unwieldy alternative to billion-dollar services like Twitter and Facebook, is vying for a larger share of that mainstream audience — and the mainstream advertising potential that comes with it. Reddit raised $50 million in private funding from venture capitalists last year.

To achieve that goal, Reddit needs to smooth its roughest edges and find a route to snuff out the most offensive content and behavior that tarnishes the reputation of the overall community and gives potential new users pause — without alienating the millions of longtime users who keep Reddit vibrant.

"I want reddit to continue to grow," Huffman wrote in one comment leading up to Thursday's content debate. "And I think one of the main obstacles to growth right now is how hostile reddit can be."

In the early days of Reddit, Huffman actively policed the worst elements of the young, fast-growing service. However, he and cofounder Ohanian left the company for other pursuits before Reddit and its most controversial communities gained more mainstream attention.

From afar, Huffman often felt that Reddit could do more set the boundary. "When the heat gets too hot on Reddit, I don’t think there's any shame in saying, 'We’re going to eliminate this content to turn attention elsewhere,'" Huffman told me in one conversation last year. "I don’t think any double speak is required. This is not what we want to be known for."

That, in a nutshell, is what he and his leadership team are now advocating for. Huffman has said setting a clear content policy is one of his first priorities. It may also determine whether he continues to have much of an active community to oversee.

This week, a new petition was posted to Change.org calling for Reddit to bring back Pao as CEO, in an apparent early rebuke of Huffman. An earlier petition to remove Pao as CEO topped 200,000 supporters before she ultimately stepped down. The latest petition still has just 350 supporters — for now.