Following Reddit’s decision to charge third-party app creators to access the site’s API, thousands of communities across the website went private on June 11, including many gaming-related subreddits.
In total, over five thousand subreddits (including Overwatch and CS:GO) were switched to private on Monday according to Reddark, a website built to track communities that were standing against the social media giant. With the subreddits closed and unavailable to view, many took to other social networks to assist in the protest.
Reddark even hosted a Twitch live stream of its website, tracking subreddits switching to private in real-time—with over 12,000 viewers tuning in at one point to watch as closures began.
While some pages are closing for 48 hours and plan to reopen on June 13, others will remain shut indefinitely until Reddit addresses the protest, with hopes the company will walk back its decision to charge third-party developers to access data critical for the apps to survive.
Of the top 100 pages on the site, 11 are gaming-related, with nine closing their doors for at least the next two days, affecting a combined 54.3 million users according to Subreddit Stats.
Abstaining from the protest includes r/Games, whose moderation team received backlash following their decision to remain open due to ongoing game-related presentations and the belief the closure of the page will not leave a meaningful mark.
Also remaining open was r/leagueoflegends, one of the largest gaming subreddits on the site with over six million subscribers. The subreddit moderators have not addressed why the page is opting out of the protest, with users instead left to speculate in the subreddit’s daily discussion thread or on Twitter.
Such comments were swiftly removed by the r/leagueoflegends moderation team, possibly revealing their intentions and stance regarding the issue at hand.
Reddit CEO and cofounder Steve Huffman addressed the Reddit community on June 9, going in-depth into changes to the company’s terms of service around data access and third-party apps, originally announced on April 17.
In the post, Huffman explained the company “can no longer subsidize commercial entities that require large-scale data use,” reiterating the importance that Reddit needs to be a “self-sustaining business.”
As such, third-party apps, such as Apollo, Reddit is Fun, and Sync will see huge operating costs with all three apps used by millions of users each month. Apollo creator Christian Selig announced the app would be shutting down before the new terms come into effect on July 1.
“Apollo made 7 billion requests last month, which would put it at about 1.7 million dollars per month, or 20 million US dollars per year,” said Selig, noting his disappointment after calls with Reddit heads over pricing and future access to data.
Reddit is one of the largest social media platforms used today, particularly for gamers who use the site for news, discussion, and community connection with friends.
The lockdown is ongoing, and while many remain skeptical over whether this action with prompt a response from Reddit, it’s clear many want their voices and concerns reevaluated.
