Which Reddit co-founder died by suicide in 2013?

Aaron Swartz was the Reddit co-founder who died by suicide in 2013. He died on January 11, 2013, at age 26, in New York City.

Swartz was an American programmer, writer, and internet activist whose work extended well beyond Reddit. He helped develop RSS, contributed to the technical architecture of Creative Commons, worked on the web.py framework, and helped define Markdown’s syntax. His broad influence made him an important figure in the early history of the open web.

Swartz became involved with Reddit after the company merged with his project Infogami. He became a co-owner and contributed to Reddit’s development until leaving the company in 2007, which is why many histories describe him as a co-founder or co-creator alongside Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian.

His death came while he was facing federal charges related to downloading academic articles from JSTOR through MIT’s network. The prosecution became a major subject of public debate, and the charges were dropped after his death. The other options were living Reddit figures in 2013, so Aaron Swartz is the clear canonical answer.