Several popular subreddits continued their blackouts on Wednesday to show their disapproval of Reddit’s increased API pricing policy. Over 8,000 subreddits turned private on Monday, June 12, for a planned two-day protest. However, the protests may continue indefinitely as Reddit refuses to change its stance.
At the time of publication, popular subreddits in the technology and cybersecurity space supporting the blackout include r/technews, r/technology, r/apple, r/cybersecurity, r/netsec, r/privacy, r/privacyguides, r/degoogle, r/crypto, and r/artificialintelligence.
Currently, more than 5,500 communities remain inaccessible, with many expected to stay dark beyond Wednesday. Other subreddits could resort to weekly participation to continue showing their support.
In addition to the protests, several popular third-party apps such as Apollo, Reddit is Fun, Sync, and Narwhal said that the API changes will force them to shut down operations starting on June 30.
In a leaked internal memo, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman stated the blackouts have not had a significant impact on revenue yet.
“We do anticipate many of them will come back by Wednesday, as many have said as much. While we knew this was coming, it is a challenge nevertheless and we have our work cut out for us,” Hoffman said.
New Pricing Policy Pushes Out Third-Party Apps
Reddit announced on April 18 that it would implement new API pricing changes starting July 1. At the time, the move appeared to focus on making AI companies pay up for using Reddit’s valuable dataset to train their large language models (LLM).
However, third-party developers who require access to Reddit’s API will have to begin paying Reddit to sustain their operations. This access was previously free to all developers.
“Reddit needs to be a self-sustaining business, and to do that, we can no longer subsidize commercial entities that require large-scale data use,” Huffman stated.
However, the fees are much too high, writes Christian Selig, developer of the popular Reddit app Apollo. Reddit’s proposed API changes will cost Selig as much as $2 million per month, he said.
Selig also mentions that Reddit did not give him, or other third-party app devs, sufficient time to plan for these changes. Even though plans for the API changes were announced in April, the actual pricing of the API was not revealed to Selig until the end of May.
“Going from a free API for 8 years to suddenly incurring massive costs is not something I can feasibly make work with only 30 days,” he wrote.
“That’s a lot of users to migrate, plans to create, things to test, and to get through app review, and it’s just not economically feasible. It’s much cheaper for me to simply shut down.”
Developers relied on access to the API to provide third-party Reddit mobile apps, which are widely preferred over the official Reddit mobile app. Apart from a better user interface, these apps provide improved moderation capabilities and accessibility for users with disabilities.
Protestor Demands: Reddit Should Rectify Its Course
Reddit users have not taken well to Huffman’s internal memo, which essentially indicates the company plans to ride out the protest wave.
“Hundreds of subs have already announced that they are in it for the long haul, prepared to remain private or otherwise inaccessible indefinitely until Reddit provides an adequate solution,” said u/Toptomcat. “These include powerhouses like /r/aww, /r/videos, and /r/AskHistorians.”
“Such subreddits are the heart and soul of this effort, and we’re deeply grateful for their support: doing so will remain the primary, preferred means of participating in the effort to save 3rd-party apps,” they added.
According to u/femilip on r/modcoord, Reddit needs to address three key subjects to put an end to the protests. These are: API technical issues, accessibility for blind people, and parity in access to NSFW content.
The first point will address the issues third-party developers currently face and will also aim at figuring out a revenue split that works out for all parties. The proposals include allowing third parties to run their own ads, lowering API pricing, and providing developers with more time.
“We firmly believe that there is still an opportunity for Reddit to rectify its course, but it requires a concerted effort to reevaluate and reverse these unacceptable decisions,” u/femilip added. “Regrettably, thus far, we have yet to witness any tangible evidence of such an undertaking.”
Many subreddits plan to remain private indefinitely as part of the protest. Users can also make their posts private by going to “Safety and Privacy” in “User Settings.” Once there, disable the option to “Show up in search results.”
Read the relevant Reddit guides below:
- What Does Reddit Know About Me? How to Change Your Privacy Setting
- How to Delete Your Reddit Account Completely
- Is Reddit Safe? Tips for Parents to Keep Teens Safer Online
