Reddit communities are going on a ‘dark’ protest, here’s why – Times of India

Over thousands of communities on Reddit are organising a protest against Reddit’s decision to monetise access to its data.
Around 3,000 subreddits are participating in the protest against Reddit’s controversial API pricing, going “private” on Monday, making their posts inaccessible to those outside the community.
Communities with over 30 million subscribers each, including r/todayilearned, r/funny, and r/gaming, have joined the campaign, while others with more than 1 million members, such as r/iPhone and r/unexpected, have already shut doors to outsiders in preparation for the strike.
The protest is over the upcoming changes to Reddit’s “API,” which enables other companies to use Reddit data in their products and services. These modifications will result in significant charges for “premium access,” causing popular third-party Reddit applications like Apollo to be shut down.
“On June 12th, many subreddits will be going dark to protest this policy. Some will return after 48 hours: others will go away permanently unless the issue is adequately addressed since many moderators aren’t able to put in the work they do with the poor tools available through the official app. This isn’t something any of us do lightly: we do what we do because we love Reddit, and we truly believe this change will make it impossible to keep doing what we love,” said the moderators of the thousands of subreddits that were joining the protest said, in a group statement.
Apollo’s creator, Christian Selig, predicts that these apps would have to charge each user approximately $5 (£4) per month to cover the new fees imposed by Reddit. However, he ultimately decided to shut down the app at the end of this month.
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman addressed the recent API changes that led to the closure of popular third-party apps during an AMA discussion.
“Reddit needs to be a self-sustaining business and to do that, we can no longer subsidise commercial entities that require large-scale data use,” he wrote in his AMA post. “Some apps such as Apollo, Reddit is Fun, and Sync have decided this pricing doesn’t work for their businesses and will close before pricing goes into effect,” Huffman wrote in his AMA post.
Huffman also addressed the blackout. “We respect when you and your communities take action to highlight the things you need, including, at times, going private,” wrote Huffman. “We are all responsible for ensuring Reddit provides an open accessible place for people to find community and belonging.”
A moderator of one subreddit told the BBC that the protest is to show “strength in numbers.” They also explained that Reddit might intervene if only one subreddit went private. However, if a significant portion of the website went private, there would be more pressure on Reddit to take action.
Reddit moderators are against the change as they believe it undermines their role in running the site. They feel that the community supports them and threatens to stop moderating if the change goes through. They question whether Reddit would sacrifice their hard work building communities to push through an unpopular change.
A moderator interviewed by the BBC believes the blackout may continue until Reddit changes its policies. Some communities, such as r/Music, with 32 million members, will not be accessible until the policy is reversed.
Each community operates differently, with varying views on the matter. Despite recent communications between moderators and Reddit administrators, the moderator does not believe that Reddit intends to reverse the changes.
Reddit charges third-party app developers hosting fees based on usage, similar to their own expenses. Some apps may not require payment. A representative stated that the Apollo app is less efficient than other third-party apps.