Reddit faces massive protests as thousands of communities 'go dark' over new company policy
'We respect when you and your communities take action to highlight the things you need,' said Reddit's CEO
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A number of popular subreddits restricted users from accessing information from June 12-14 as a form of protest against Reddit's new policies that they say are severely hampering third-party apps.
A subreddit is a topic-specific community on the website Reddit.
Subreddits range from broad topics such as "r/WorldNews" to more niche interests, such as specific sports teams, locations or hobbies.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}More than 8,000 subreddits pledged to join the protest, according to the Twitch streamer Reddark_247, who streamed a live view of subreddits that had "gone dark" in protest.
Some subreddits went completely private, meaning that only a select few users were able to see content; or, they moved to "restricted," meaning that previous posts could be seen, but no new ones could be made.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}As of late Wednesday afternoon, some 6,000 subreddits — some with millions of subscribers — were still "dark." On Thursday, 5,000 subreddits were still "dark."
Among the subreddits that "went dark" during the initial 48-hour protest period were r/funny, r/aww, r/todayilearned, r/pics, r/food and r/sports — each with tens of millions of people subscribed.
Thousands of subreddits, or topic-specific communities on Reddit, restricted access to users in protest against a new policy. (Tiffany Hagler-Geard/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Ideas for the protests began following a May 31 announcement that Reddit would begin charging for its application programming interfaces, or "APIs," beginning July 1.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"On May 31, 2023, Reddit announced they were raising the price to make calls to their API from being free to a level that will kill every third party app on Reddit, from Apollo to Reddit is Fun to Narwhal to BaconReader," said a message posted on Reddark_247's Twitch stream.
"This isn't only a problem on the user level: Many subreddit moderators depend on tools only available outside the official app to keep their communities on-topic and spam-free," the message read.
Additionally, the official Reddit application had major accessibility issues, the message also said.
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APIs "are regarded as the foundation of the contemporary web. Simply said, they enable the exchange of information between two apps, enabling the creation of additional features and capabilities," as the website Dataconomy described.
Until this announcement, Reddit had allowed developers to access its API freely, it also said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A post by the moderators of r/AmITheA--hole (AITA), one of the subreddits that participated in the protest, explained that the cost of API access was too high for most third-party apps to bear.
Several third-party Reddit apps, including "Apollo," "rif is fun for Reddit," "ReddPlanet" and "Sync," all announced they will be shutting down on June 30.
Apollo for Reddit, a third-party app, announced it will be shutting down on June 30. (Getty Images)
"We do not begrudge Reddit's efforts to become profitable. Reddit employs thousands of people and it requires consistent and predictable sources of revenue to address its operating costs to keep them employed," wrote the moderators of AITA, which has over 8 million subscribers.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Paid APIs are standard in the industry. Concerns about controls over NSFW ["not safe for work"], ad content, etc., are also standard in the industry."
"There’s a lot of noise with this one. Among the noisiest we’ve seen."
The group continued, "But at the same time, we do not begrudge any users who have been understandably upset by these changes. Maybe you were simply blindsided by the insanely short time frame. Maybe you were justifiably outraged by Reddit’s choices that failed to prioritize user experience and accessibility. Either way, you weren’t wrong."
The moderators of AITA were similarly dismayed with the timeframe of the change.
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"A 30-day timeframe between a formal announcement and changes taking effect is unheard of," they also wrote. "It’s also inadequate for a change that requires a complete 180 in the business model to remain sustainable."
The group went on, "You cannot reasonably tell us this takes time while unironically giving third party partners 30 days to change their entire operating model. Do you hear yourselves."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Reddit plans to begin charging for its API — and third-party developers say they can no longer afford to maintain their products. (iStock)
"In our calls with Reddit, we clearly stated: The status quo is not sustainable," they wrote.
"If they have not heard us by now, we genuinely don’t know what we could say here that will make an impact. We’re at a loss," the moderators added.
"We know those we speak with listen and care deeply. We know they advocate for us and pass our feedback on. We also see, through the actions of the company, that this feedback is not always acted upon. The key decision makers don't seem to be getting it. We are not satisfied with the hand-waving and unspecific answers."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}When reached for comment, a representative from Reddit directed Fox News Digital to a comment by Reddit CEO Steve Huffman.
Reddit said it would be addressing various accessibility issues in its existing app, but would not be making changes regarding API access.
In a June 9 "Ask Me Anything" post, Huffman stated, "We respect when you and your communities take action to highlight the things you need, including, at times, going private. We are all responsible for ensuring Reddit provides an open accessible place for people to find community and belonging."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Additionally, the representative said in the post that Reddit would be addressing various accessibility issues in its existing app, but would not be making changes regarding API access.
Reddit will be making updates to its application to improve accessibility. (Getty Image)
"We’ve connected with select developers of non-commercial apps that address accessibility needs and offered them exemptions from our large-scale pricing terms. As of now, we’ve signed agreements with Luna, Dystopia and Redreader," said the representative from Reddit.
In his message to employees, Huffman said that he believed things would soon blow over.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"There’s a lot of noise with this one. Among the noisiest we’ve seen," wrote Huffman in an internal memo that the tech website The Verge obtained.
"Please know that our teams are on it, and like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well," he said.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The most important things we can do right now are stay focused, adapt to challenges and keep moving forward. We absolutely must ship what we said we would," he said.
"The only long-term solution is improving our product, and in the short term we have a few upcoming critical mod tool launches we need to nail."