Backlash Ensues After Moderator From Reddit's 'AntiWork' Subreddit Was Interviewed On Fox News

Controversy ensued after a moderator from Reddit's /r/AntiWork subreddit of more than 1.7 million members went live on Jesse Watters Fox News show.

The segment, which was about "The War Against Working," had the mod, Doreen Ford, on to discuss the subreddit and movement, which has seen explosive growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. But things immediately started to nosedive when viewers noticed the mod showed up on the program looking unprepared and disheveled.

/biz/ reacts to #reddit #antiwork mod refusing to step down after catastrophic Fox News appearance pic.twitter.com/fkREcrI5gf

— Alexander August (@NovemXI) January 27, 2022

This is a FOX news interview with an r/antiwork user. This is just sad lmao bro looks like the stereotypical reddit mod pic.twitter.com/gTJ1lDj80m

— r/redditmoment  (@r_redditmoment) January 26, 2022

So the FAST growing subreddit r/Antiwork was shut down after a mod for the reddit had a meltdown live on Fox news. Mods started deleting anyone talking about it then shut down the subreddit. This mod killed the movement in 3 minutes flat. RT and SHARE!https://t.co/N3rFPhUULi

— CAMELOT331 (@CAMELOT331) January 27, 2022

Following the live appearance, multiple things from the background of this event came to light. According to other subreddit moderators in the aftermath, Ford had originally asked about the chance to be interviewed but was told that it wasn't a good idea, and proceeded to anyway. Further digging by other Redditors after the subreddit went private revealed rape allegations against the moderator themself.

Fox News hosts a reddit mod from from r/antiwork and it goes exactly as you'd expect. Immediate backlash from its own community, rape allegations surface, & the subreddit goes private. What a dumpster fire 🔥🔥🔥 LOL pic.twitter.com/XtSqQqJIwY

— Jordan Solomon (@GunghoSolo) January 27, 2022

CW sexual assault rape....So the antiwork sub reddit collapsed on itself this morning after people criticized a Fox News interview no one agreed to and apparently the mod who went on Fox is a serial rapist :/

— Kalina Chung in terumoku brainrot hours (@kalina_chung) January 26, 2022

A Reddit group about labour reforms has been locked after its moderator, Doreen Ford, a male who identifies as a woman, appeared on a TV interview. The publicity led to the revelation that Ford left an anarchists' society after being exposed as a rapisthttps://t.co/hWSNrPRsDr

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) January 27, 2022

The subreddit would later be unprivated this morning as mods issued a lengthy statement on everything relating to the subreddit, from its core message to the moderator in question, the interview and the sexual assault allegations.

Despite the attempts at damage control from moderators, the sub was flooded with numerous posts from members claiming that the sub should be shut down, calls for mods to be removed and several upset Redditors voicing their irritation with the mods taking it upon themselves to act as representatives for the nearly 2 million members.