Reddit Protest Falters: CEO's Threat Causes Many Subreddits To Open Back Up

pcmag.com:

It looks like Reddit’s CEO threat to kick out volunteer moderators has been enough to scare many subreddits to open back up, although some are pivoting to new forms of protest.

Over 8,400 subreddits originally participated in the so-called "blackout" by becoming private, preventing users from accessing their pages. But this past weekend, many of the top subreddits reverted back to public —and some volunteer moderators cited Huffman’s threat as the reason why. 

“You are seeing this post because Reddit has threatened to open subreddits regardless of mod action and replace entire teams that otherwise refuse,” wrote(Opens in a new window) a moderator for r/Apple, a subreddit devoted to Apple products. “We want the best for this community and have no choice but to open it back up — or have it opened for us.” (Currently, only 3,385 subreddits remain dark(Opens in a new window).)

Indeed, this past weekend, Reddit began contacting volunteer moderators, urging them to make their subreddits public again.  “We are reaching out to find out if any moderators currently on the mod team would be willing to take steps to reopen the community,” Reddit wrote(Opens in a new window), later adding: “If you are not able or willing to open and maintain the community please let us know.”

Although the message contained benign language, many volunteer moderators saw the wording as a potential threat that could lead to two drastic actions: Reddit could replace them with moderators willing to open the subreddit back up or the company could take over the subreddit entirely. 

The messages were enough to spark moderators in support of the blackout to tell(Opens in a new window) their peers to consider “softer forms of protest,” essentially pivoting