As Subreddit Blackouts Loom, Reddit CEO Announces AMA About Controversial API Changes – SlashGear

“Crawling Reddit, generating value and not returning any of that value to our users is something we have a problem with,” Huffman told The New York Times in April 2023, adding that Reddit won’t give away its valuable trove of human data for free. Reddit’s API change is not only controversial for its pricing strategy but also for the small window it has given developers of apps and moderation tools to embrace the API fee policies.

With beloved apps like Apollo shutting down and some of its largest communities protesting against a “greedy” move, Reddit has attracted a lot of bad press. To its credit, the company is making some concessions in its API policy. Developers making tools that improve accessibility, bots that keep the platform tidy, and researchers using it for academic purposes will have free access to the APIs.

However, the company is strictly against any product that uses the API and generates a profit, and more importantly, doesn’t share the spoils with Reddit. The AMA will likely explore the dos and don’ts of Reddit’s API policy, but Huffman won’t walk away without some stinging questions over the controversial move. Reddit wants to keep the good part of its community free from the dark API fee shadow, but all that moderation and rewarding work by bots is built atop hours of volunteer work, while their creators remain at loggerheads with the API policy.