Reddit Community in Chaos as Thousands of Subreddits Stage Massive Shutdown in Protest of Controversial API Pricing!

More than 8,000 subreddits went dark or read-only in protest of Reddit’s API pricing, which will shut down many third-party apps like Apollo and Reddit is Fun due to high fees.

The blackout, which began Monday and will last 48 hours, is a coordinated effort among tens of thousands of moderators and millions of Reddit users. Participating subreddits will be private during the blackout, so non-subscribers can’t view existing content and subscribers can’t post or comment on new content. Some protest subreddits will be in read-only mode. Participants are encouraged to speak out about the API changes by leaving negative comments on the official Reddit app, as well as boycotting the site in favor of non-Reddit platforms to reduce their traffic.

Moderators in r/ModCoord are keeping track of participating subreddits in an ongoing thread: As of Monday afternoon, 28,606 moderators are participating, and 8,300 subreddits have pledged to go private in support of the movement. Some subreddits have vowed to shut down permanently unless Reddit “adequately addresses” their users’ concerns, according to a post on r/Save third-party apps. Popular subreddits participating in the blackout include r/funny, r/aww, r/gaming, r/Music, r/Pics, r/science, and r/todayilearned. The collective user base across all protest subreddits stands at 2.8 billion, which includes a significant overlap of users subscribing to multiple protest subreddits. Users can watch subreddits go dark in real time on Twitch.

“The two-day blackout is not the goal, and it is not the end”, a instructional post at r/Save3rdPartyApps said. “If things get to day 14 with no sign that Reddit decides to fix what they’ve broken, we’ll use the community and buzz we’ve created between then and now as a tool for future action.”

When contacted for comment, a Reddit spokesperson pointed TechCrunch to Reddit CEO Steve Huffman. AMA post from last weekwhere he addressed the changes to the Reddit API.

“We respect when you and your communities take steps to highlight the things you need, including, at times, going private,” Huffman said. “We are all responsible for ensuring that Reddit provides an open and accessible place for people to find community and belonging.”

Until now, access to the API, which allows a third-party application to communicate with a website, has been free. Upvoting a post, commenting, browsing subreddits, and all other interactions users have while using a third-party app require API requests. Reddit responds to requests with the corresponding data. API access also allows third-party apps to provide accessibility features for users who are blind or have low vision, and allows moderators to use “superior modding tools, customization, simplified interfaces, and other quality-of-life enhancements.” which the official Reddit app doesn’t do. t offer, a open letter in r/ModCoord grades

“The potential loss of these services due to the price change would significantly impact our ability to moderate efficiently, negatively impacting the user experience in our communities and for ourselves as moderators and users,” moderator BuckRowdy wrote in the post. open letter. “We understand that Reddit, like any company, must balance its financial obligations. However, we believe that the longevity and success of this platform rests on preserving the rich ecosystem that has developed around it.”

Starting July 1, pricing for API access will be based on data usage, which will be prohibitively expensive for many third-party apps. The cost is untenable for many of the independent developers who run widely used apps, including Apollo, Reddit is Fun and Sync, all of which have announced plans to shut down by June 30. The new price would cost Apollo $20 million per year, Apollo developer Christian Selig. said in a recent post, which “is simply not economically feasible,” even if the app were to increase its subscription fees. Reddit’s API policy changes also restrict NSFW content and, as BuckRowdy noted in the open letter, will allow “spam, karma farming, link dumping, and other kinds of behavior that ruin subreddits.” they run wild

The Reddit spokesperson said that the company is not planning any further API updates and that the pricing changes are based on usage levels that the company measures to be comparable to its own costs. Reddit spends millions of dollars in hosting fees, the spokesperson said, and the company needs to be compensated to continue supporting high-use third-party apps. The spokesperson also said that developers are responsible for the efficiency of their apps, noting that Apollo is “notably less efficient” than other third-party apps. As long as the apps are not monetized, the Reddit API is free.

Existing non-commercial moderation tools like Toolbox, Context Mod, Remind Me, and antispam detection bots will continue to have free access to the Reddit API. the company also make an exception for certain accessibility applications. The spokesperson directed TechCrunch to a mail on r/modnews last week.

“If the use is legal, non-commercial, and helps our moderators, we won’t stand in your way,” the post read. “Moderators will continue to have access to their communities through the API, including sexually explicit content on Reddit. Moderators will be able to see sexually explicit content even on subreddits they don’t directly moderate.”

The Reddit front page was quiet on Monday afternoon. He most popular post of the day was a thank you note from Selig on r/apolloapp, with over 137,000 upvotes.

“I think showing humanity through apologies and acknowledgment that this process was mishandled, and concrete promises to give developers more time, would go a long way toward making people feel heard and instilling trust in the community.” Selig said in the post. “Small steps can make a potentially huge difference.”