Why is Reddit going dark? Reddit protest explained

Your beloved subreddits on Reddit may not allow any new posts or followers for 48 hours starting June 12, with thousands of moderators and users supporting the long strike for a compelling cause. 

Top communities like r/gaming, r/funny, r/sports, r/music, and a number of other pages are participating in the movement, with a goal to deliver a strong message to Reddit officials regarding the platform’s new policy set to go live on July 1, which will discourage the growth of promising third-party developments.    

Reddit protest explained

On April 18, the social media giant revealed revised rules for “Reddit Data and Reddit Data API Access,” intending to monetize its invaluable application program interface (API) platform. 

“We are introducing a new premium access point for third parties who require additional capabilities, higher usage limits, and broader usage rights,” Reddit said. Up until this point, Reddit’s API was completely free of cost: any third-party developer could pull information using the API and populate its applications.

While the popular social media giant wants to “build a more sustainable, healthy ecosystem around data” using the new policy, it wasn’t long before developers and communities realized how brutal this change can be for third-party apps, fueling massive protests.  

To help the cause even further, over 7,000 subreddits and 35,000 moderators (still counting) agreed to make themselves scarce for a day or two—some even pledged not to make a return until Reddit promises to look into the requests.

If you are looking to join a new community, you may not be able to do so at this time. Even if you’re a member, the subreddit may not allow you to upload new posts or comment on old posts.    

One of the most popular third-party Reddit clients, Apollo, is set to close its operations due to the outrageous costs it would have to bear after the new policy comes into effect. Apollo’s creator Christian Selig revealed that he’ll have to pay Reddit a whopping $20 million to continue its operations. 

Third-party Reddit clients like Apollo, Reddit is Fun, Sync for Reddit, and more offer a highly customized surfing experience, which users prefer over the platform’s mundane official design. These successful ventures may have no option but to shut down unless Reddit cancels the rollout of its new API pricing plan. 

Related: Overwatch, CS:GO among thousands of Reddit communities going dark in protest of platform changes

Despite platform-wide, intense protests, Steve Huffman, Reddit CEO and co-founder, has made it clear in a Reddit AMA dated June 9 that the updates are here to stay. In fact, when asked to comment on how Reddit has become “increasingly profit-driven and less focused on community engagement,” Huffman didn’t shy away from revealing his agenda.

“We’ll continue to be profit-driven until profits arrive. Unlike some of the 3P apps, we are not profitable,” Huffman said.

Starting next month, Reddit will charge third-party developers $0.24 per 1,000 API calls, which translates to less than $1.00 per user/month for a “typical Reddit third-party app,” according to Huffman. 

But there’s also a free tier, applicable if the app requires only 100 queries per minute per OAuth client id when using OAuth authentication or 10 queries per minute if not using OAuth authentication. Huffman also stressed that most of the third-party apps (90 percent) fall in the free category and can continue to function without having to pay a dime.   

Huffman also mentioned that while some clients like Apollo and Reddit is Fun have decided to shut down, they will continue to “talk” to developers who want to keep their ties with the platform intact. “We acknowledge that the timeline we gave was tight; we are happy to engage with folks who want to work with us,” he said. 

If you’re wondering how bad the situation is, give the AMA post a read—you’ll get an idea of how upset the community is. People are also showering the Reddit app with negative comments and ratings on Google PlayStore and Apple App Store.

Users are outraged about Huffman targetting Apollo’s creator Christian Selig with “baseless claims” of blackmailing and inefficiency: Selig explained the controversy in a long Reddit post, while also announcing Apollo’s closure on June 30.   

While the ongoing Reddit “blackout” is definitely wondrous to witness, with subreddits and thousands of moderators uniting to fight against a controversial policy, Huffman’s rigidity makes it seem unlikely for things to change at Reddit. 

That being said, the platform is heading toward losing a huge fraction of its user base in the upcoming days and taking a hit to its long-standing reputation as well.