Despite Reddit CEO Steve Huffman’s reassurances to employees in an internal memo, stating that the current turmoil on the platform would eventually fade away like previous incidents, the situation at the social media site continues to escalate and shows no signs of abating.
Shortly after The Verge published a leaked memo from Huffman addressed to Reddit employees, in which he firmly stood his ground on proposed changes to Reddit’s API pricing, moderators participating in the blackout swiftly sprang into action. In a post, the moderators announced their decision to initiate an “indefinite blackout” to exert pressure on Reddit to address their demands, including reducing API pricing costs.
According to the leaked memo on Tuesday, Huffman emphasized the need for Reddit to move forward and follow through on its commitments.
In the memo, Huffman said, “There’s a lot of noise with this one. Among the noisiest we’ve seen. Please know that our teams are on it, and like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well. The most important things we can do right now stay focused, adapt to challenges, and keep moving forward. We absolutely must ship what we said we would. 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.”
Indefinite Blackout: Reddit Community Protests API Policy Changes and Lack of Response
On Tuesday evening, moderators on r/ModCoord expressed their disappointment with Reddit, stating that the company had made only minuscule concessions in response to the ongoing blackout. They claimed that Reddit had remained largely silent since the blackout began.
Over 300 subreddits, including popular ones such as r/aww, r/music, r/videos, and r/futurology, with a combined user base of over 110 million, have declared their commitment to an indefinite blackout until Reddit addresses their concerns. Despite contacting Reddit for comment, Gizmodo did not receive an immediate response.
According to Reddark, a tracker that monitors subreddit activity, more than 8,000 subreddits initially went private on Monday for a planned two-day strike, impacting the visibility of high-quality content and negatively affecting the user experience. On Monday, the site experienced downtime due to the blackouts. As of Wednesday morning, when the strike was originally scheduled to end, over 6,700 subreddits remained private, indicating an ongoing protest. In response to Reddit’s announcement on May 31 regarding changes to its API policy, which would significantly increase the cost for third-party apps to access, a widespread protest emerged among thousands of subreddit moderators. The planned modifications to the API policy raised concerns among developers and users alike, particularly affecting popular third-party apps such as Apollo, a Reddit reader highly favored over the official Reddit app.
Apollo Faces Closure Due to Exorbitant Costs of Reddit’s API Pricing
Christian Selig, the developer behind Apollo, revealed that the new pricing structure for accessing Reddit’s API would impose a staggering cost of over $20 million per year, rendering it financially unfeasible. Consequently, Apollo is set to cease its operations on June 30, leaving its devoted user base searching for alternative options.
The rationale provided by Reddit for the API pricing change revolved around curtailing the utilization of Reddit content by commercial entities, such as Google and OpenAI, for training their artificial intelligence models. During an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on June 9, Reddit CEO Huffman defended the decision, emphasizing the need for Reddit to operate as a self-sustaining business. Huffman stated that the company could no longer afford to subsidize the large-scale data usage required by commercial entities.
Despite widespread backlash from the community, Huffman and the company have maintained their steadfast position, refusing to make substantive changes to the API policy. However, they were willing to consider exceptions for noncommercial apps prioritizing accessibility.
The protests by subreddit moderators reflect the Reddit community’s deep concerns and frustrations regarding the platform’s direction. The significance of third-party apps like Apollo cannot be undermined, as they provide users with alternative interfaces and enhanced features that have garnered a dedicated following. The proposed API pricing changes have created uncertainty and anxiety among developers, who fear the impact on their apps’ viability and the overall user experience on Reddit.
