*By Max Godnick* Suspected Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election forced the CEOs of [Facebook](https://cheddar.com/videos/zuckerberg-makes-his-congressional-debut) and [Twitter](https://cheddar.com/videos/sheryl-sandberg-and-jack-dorsey-testify-who-did-better) off the web and onto Capitol Hill to testify before Congress. But, the Senate hasn't asked Reddit anything. "They had Russian influence before the election, after the election, and ongoing on the site," Christine Lagorio-Chafkin, author of "We Are the Nerds: The Birth and Tumultuous Life of Reddit, the Internet's Culture Laboratory," said Thursday in an interview on Cheddar. Reddit did provide information to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Lagorio-Chafkin said; and while the body told her that it had "interest" in the platform, it would not confirm whether reps ever called its founders. "They are dealing with the same exact challenges that Facebook ($FB) and Twitter ($TWTR) have dealt with," she said. Lagorio-Chafkin, a senior writer at Inc., was granted exclusive access to Reddit co-founders Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian while she was drafting her book. She said she was in Huffman's office as he watched Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg address Senators on Capitol Hill in April and can remember his response to the spectacle. At the time, Huffman said: "I'm really glad I'm not in \[Zuckerberg's\] shoes right now." The near-absence of congressional oversight is indicative of Reddit's unique role in the digital landscape. The platform fluctuates between [third and fifth place for most-visited website in the United States](https://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/US) and reached [1 billion page views per month](https://variety.com/2018/digital/news/reddit-1-billion-video-views-1202964837/) this week. But despite its massive popularity and ubiquity, the site's analog design scheme and devotedly quirky user base have allowed it to operate in the margins of the internet. In April, Reddit implemented its first redesign in a decade, slightly tweaking its interface to more closely resemble the sleeker layouts found on Tumblr. Lagorio-Chafkin said the change sparked “an interesting battle for the soul of Reddit” as evangelists push to avoid the highly-produced and manicured aesthetics of Pinterest and Facebook-owned Instagram. That “rough around the edges” look and feel, Lagorio-Chafkin said, is what helped Reddit become a breeding ground for both supporters of Donald Trump and the Alt-Right in the run-up to and the aftermath of the 2016 election. Her book includes an entire chapter devoted to [r/The_Donald] (https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/), the subthread dedicated to all things Trump. With 600,000 subscribers, the thread has doubled its audience count since the election. Reddit has shut down its Alt-Right communities but has let r/The_Donald thrive, despite breaking “many if not all of the site’s rules over the years,” Lagorio-Chafkin said. Reddit’s road to becoming the self-proclaimed “Front Page of the Internet” has seen “many ups and downs” in its 12-year lifespan, Lagorio-Chafkin added. And with a mandate to reach 1 billion global users, the platform’s growing pains are sure to continue as it inevitably gets larger, more political, and culturally relevant in the years to come. "We Are the Nerds: The Birth and Tumultuous Life of Reddit, the Internet's Culture Laboratory" is available in stores and online. For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/how-reddit-became-the-front-page-of-the-internet).
