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Reddit's giving away 10 percent of money made off its ads to charity this year

Reddit's giving away 10 percent of money made off its ads to charity this year

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Reddit's turning from an entertainment and philanthropy-enabler to a philanthropist of its own. The popular social network today said it plans to take 10 percent of the revenue it makes off advertising during 2014 and give it to a charity that will be chosen by the Reddit community. "We want to show that advertising doesn’t just support the reddit platform, it also directly supports the causes and goals of reddit as a whole," Reddit CEO Yishan Wong wrote in a post announcing the program.

Reddit will intervene if users are "clearly trolling"

To curb any "shenanigans," Wong says the company will intervene if any suggestions are "clearly trolling," as well as limit the charities to verified 501(c)(3) groups. Wong also says the site will thwart any attempts to cheat or game its voting system.

Reddit continues to be a free site, though offers users a premium gold membership that costs $3.99 a month, or $29.99 a year, and adds extra features. Gold membership also lets users to disable advertising, including links that have been sponsored by third-party companies. That program was unveiled in no small part to bring the site to profitability, a goal its had since it was founded in 2005. Last year, Wong said the site was "still in the red," but had plans to change that by making the cost of its operations more transparent to users.