Quiet Day on Reddit: Major Subreddits Go Dark to Protest API Changes
Numerous subreddits shut down today to protest the controversial plan to charge for access to Reddit's API, which will effectively kill several third-party apps.
The protest, which will last at least 48 hours, means many subreddits have gone private, preventing users from accessing them or posting comments. These subreddits essentially act as bulletin boards that devote themselves to a topic, and are major drivers for user traffic on Reddit.
Subreddits participating in the protest include r/funny, the second largest subreddit, which has nearly 50 million readers. Others include r/aww, r/gaming, r/music, r/gadgets, and even r/nba, despite the ongoing NBA finals.
One site that is tracking the protest, Reddark(Opens in a new window), says 7,177 subreddits have gone dark. Meanwhile, several other subreddits have switched to read-only mode or circulated posts voicing their opposition to the API change.
“Reddit is killing third-party applications,” reads(Opens in a new window) one protest protest from r/jokes. “Do not sacrifice long-term viability for the sake of a short-lived illusion.”
Reddit’s API allows third-party apps to pull and post information from the social media site. But starting next month, the platform will charge $0.24 per 1,000 API calls for third-party apps that need high-volume access. Previously, this feature was free, but CEO Steve Huffman said last week that Reddit "can no longer subsidize commercial entities that require large-scale data use"—like AI chatbots.
The new pricing structure means Apollo, a popular third-party client for Reddit, will shut down since it would cost $20 million per year to keep the app running under the API change.
Subreddits participating in today’s protest also point out
Read more on pcmag.com
