He also announced that he was “going through some personal issues that have come up” during the past year.
Huffman said the issues stemmed from the fact that the company was trying to change course and “it is difficult to get to where we want to be without making the biggest mistakes and then being caught in them.”
The CEO said he and Huffman were working to “fix” the company’s design and the way it functions, but that the site’s management had made it “tough” for him to continue working on the site.
He said he plans to “immediately step away” from Reddit in 2019.
The CEO’s resignation comes after months of criticism from the tech industry and Reddit’s community.
It came as a result of the company announcing it would be shuttering its popular “Ask Me Anything” feature, which allows users to ask each other questions and get a chance to ask them in-person.
The move has angered many Redditors and spurred a growing number of people to publicly accuse the company of harassment and discrimination.
The company announced the decision to close the feature in February.
After it closed its website, Huffman announced that the community would be able to continue using the Ask Me Anything feature on the platform, but Reddit’s moderators would not be able post new questions.
In a blog post on Friday, Huffmans wife, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, said the decision was made to end the Ask-Me-Anything feature “because it was too disruptive and distracting.”
The Reddit team, which includes Huffmans son, Yishan, and other Reddit employees, said in a statement that they were “shocked and saddened” by Huffman’s announcement.
“The decision to shut down the AskMeApp was made based on our belief that the user experience was too different from our expectations, which we respect,” the statement read.
“We will continue to invest in the AskApp to make it better, but we believe it’s important to get this done before our community feels it’s too late.”