Reddit’s cofounder said that at first the company felt like ‘a homework assignment that got out of hand’ rather than a business::Reddit’s cofounder Steve Huffman said in its early days he filled up most of the site with content using different accounts until it got more users.
When you design and run a platform, it is your responsibility.
If you design the platform to allow anyone to “create a morally objectionable community and then associate it with anyone else”, you are responsible for this oversight.
It’s not like spez took that responsibility and reacted accordingly. He didn’t care, didn’t change anything, and the simple fact that he could have fixed it in a matter of hours but chose not to is complicit enough to admit wilful association.
So, in my book, for all intent and purposes, him not doing anything with that mod access is irrelevant. What is relevant is him not doing anything about that mod access.