• Users of r/Pics are revolting after Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said moderators were too powerful.
  • r/Pics now only allows photos of British comedian John Oliver "looking sexy."
  • Moderators of 3,500 subreddits staged a 48-hour blackout this week to protest new policies.

Users of one of Reddit's largest communities are protesting statements from the social media site's CEO and changes to its API by only allowing posts of photos of "Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver "looking sexy."

"A born stunner," reads the top comment on a teenage yearbook photo posted by the British comedian and then reshared on the subreddit on Saturday. 

Following a two-day blackout protest, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said on Friday that the site's volunteer moderators were too powerful and planned to implement changes allowing subreddit users to vote them out.

Huffman told NBC that the current system, where moderators can only be removed by themselves, higher-ranking mods, or Reddit itself, was "not democratic."

"If you're a politician or a business owner, you are accountable to your constituents. So a politician needs to be elected, and a business owner can be fired by its shareholders," he told the outlet. "And I think, on Reddit, the analogy is closer to the landed gentry: The people who get there first get to stay there and pass it down to their descendants, and that is not democratic."

Huffman's comments followed a blackout protest last week, during which many of the site's users and moderators didn't post any content for 48 hours. More than 3,500 subreddits took part in the protest and some subreddits are still adhering to the blackout.

Users are protesting a new Reddit policy that charges third-party apps for using the company's API. The policy would increase charges for third-party app Apollo — a popular program that reorganized the website's layout for an easier browsing experience — to more than $20 million per year, the app's developer said. 

A moderator for r/Pics on Friday posted a message telling the site's users that they would vote between letting the subreddit continue operating normally or only allowing images of "John Oliver looking sexy." The subreddit is Reddit's seventh-largest and has more than 30 million subscribers. 

"We – the so-called 'landed gentry' – definitely want to comply with the wishes of the 'royal court,' and they've told us that we need to run the subreddit in the way that its members want," the post reads.

Users voted overwhelmingly in favor of sexy John Oliver.

Following the vote, the subreddit's moderators posted a statement that said the vote was "prompted by statements from Reddit's CEO, who suggested that the desires of the platform's everyday users were being eclipsed by those of moderators."

Representatives for John Oliver did not immediately return Insider's request for comment on Saturday.