They explicitly defended and espoused free speech/open discourse in the early days. It was very much part of the ethos. One of their founders (Aaron Schwartz) w

They explicitly defended and espoused free speech/open discourse in the early days. It was very much part of the ethos. One of their founders (Aaron Schwartz) was a famous activist in areas intersecting with free speech. They were known for allowing edgy content on their platform, even if they didn't approve of it, like exotic but legal porn and stuff like FiftyFifty. There was really huge pushback from the community in the mid 2010s to instances of censorship. In 2012 their CEO specifically said "we stand for free speech". https://www.theverge.com/2015/7/15/8964995/reddit-free-speech-history https://www.theverge.com/2015/7/15/8964995/reddit-free-speec... Reddit also used to be open source, but they moved on from that, too.