Reddit

It is unclear exactly why John Oliver has been chosen as the face of the protest, though a moderator for r/gifs said it was a direct response to comments made by Reddit chief executive Steve Huffman.

I think it's pretty clear that Oliver was chosen because he often uses similar stunts to make his point and it's likely that their protest will get exposure on his show when the writers' strike ends.

On edit: Fixed the formatting of the quote.