This analysis was first published in SvD Näringsliv, in Swedish, on December 17th, 2021.

The jokes never stopped when Reddit — the launchpad for the GameStop rally — announced that it was itself going public. But the problems the site has been dragging around for years are about to be on full display.

“Gentlemen, it’s been fun burning my retirement money together with you these past few years.”

That’s what one user posted this week in the now-infamous Reddit forum Wallstreetbets after it became clear that their digital home wants to list in the US. The tone is typical: short, humorous, and packed with references to various memes.

For a tech company of its size, Reddit has drawn relatively little attention. It’s one of the ten most-visited sites in the US, and in Sweden one in seven people has used Reddit in the past year.

Unlike social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, much of the activity on Reddit seems to have flown under the radar of both the media and society at large. One reason may be the site’s complex content structure, with so-called subreddits — dedicated forums that discuss specific topics and phenomena. The content is open for anyone to read, but hard to get your head around for the uninitiated.

The site also gives off a trivial, amateur-forum vibe — a long way from the polished packaging of its Silicon Valley peers. The Swedish site Flashback gives a similar impression: much smaller and simpler than it actually is.

Behind that facade, though, sits a genuine force in both politics and the economy. The surge in so-called meme stocks like GameStop and AMC nearly a year ago started with discussions in the Wallstreetbets group. When the Capitol was stormed in Washington DC, a lot of the planning and activity took place in Trump-related forums. At that point the political pressure became too heavy even for Reddit, which shut one of them down shortly afterwards.

Handling controversial content is something that has followed Reddit since its launch in 2005. Passionate advocates of online free speech have seen the site as a refuge for conversations and debates that weren’t welcome or permitted at competitors.

But a more permissive stance on moderation has also turned the site into a magnet for harassment and online abuse. In an attempt to clean some of that up, Ellen Pao, then CEO of Reddit, banned a number of groups whose only activity was directing hate at overweight people. Shutting down groups like that might sound uncontroversial, but the members took it as an infringement on their free speech. The backlash — and the attacks on Pao personally — led to her stepping down as CEO.

In a public-company setting, questions like these will be scrutinized more than ever. Reddit is free to use, but it sells memberships to those who want extra features and a way to flaunt their status.

Most of the revenue comes from advertising. But placing ads in potentially controversial environments is risky, and not something that suits every kind of company. Last year companies like Coca-Cola, Unilever, and Microsoft halted all their social-media advertising for a period to take a stand against online hate. So don’t be surprised if new scandals emerge based on statements buried deep in Reddit’s many forums.

Reddit’s challenge sits right here — the balancing act between what members want and what is commercially viable and acceptable to advertisers. Much of the moderation is done by the members themselves, and Reddit is one of the few large sites on the internet that can genuinely be classified as a community. The members have strong opinions and they love Reddit. Picking too big a fight with them would be digging your own grave — the whole site is built on their engagement and their content.

At the same time, the IPO cranks up the pressure on Reddit to grow revenue. If advertisers don’t feel comfortable being associated with all the discussions the members want to have, that will be hard to pull off.

Having your vocal community as shareholders will add another layer of complexity. Rarely has a tech company gone public with users as passionate as Reddit’s. It remains to be seen whether they are as loud and freedom-loving as shareholders as they are as users.