Reddit Blackout: Top subreddits pledge revolt will “continue indefinitely”

The communities at the heart of Reddit are continuing their blackout, as sweeping changes to the way the company handles its API see backlash.

Reddit is an incredibly large social media platform, with collective billions of members across its many hyperspecific forums, or subreddits. These range from things like discussions about sports and games, or super niche topics.

However, Reddit has made a massive change to how it shares information with third-party apps via its API (Application Programming Interface) by charging for a previously free service.

This means apps like Apollo, which brings an alternative to the main app, could see charges of up to $20 million per month for access to this data.

In the ensuing chaos surrounding it, subreddit moderators and admins have gone on a blackout. This is done by restricting public access to the forums and closing it off to subscribed members.

Large-scale subreddits with millions of users, like basketball-centric r/NBA (nearly 7 million users), or ones focused on cute things like r/aww (34 million users) have shut their doors to the general public until things have been resolved resolved. as a part of an ongoing blackout.

Reddit moderators go on indefinite blackout

Reddit

However, the moderators noted that the initial protest of 48 hours wasn’t going to shift the tide of things after the CEO of Reddit doubled down in a questions and answers session.

Now over 300 subreddits will be indefinitely closed, leaving massive quantities of information and discussion behind lock and key.

A moderator by the name of SpicyThunder335 has written a post detailing the continued issues, and confirming that massive subreddits like r/music (32.3 million users) and r/videos (26.6 million users) have coordinated to remain closed.

However, as Reddit is still a vital service to some, key subreddits will remain open for support. Things like r/StopDrinking and news from Ukraine being posted in its own subreddit “obviously outweighs any of these concerns”.

The Verge managed to obtain an email in which Huffman stated that Reddit hasn’t seen “significant revenue impact”, nor does it expect the blackout to continue for a majority of subreddits.

This memo has caused over 300 subreddits to rally behind the blackout. Whether or not other communities continue to revolt remains to be seen. But, some of the largest communities on the site itself could remain down for as long as Reddit sticks to its guns.