'Nothing without their users': Why thousands of Reddit communities are going dark
Popular Canadian subreddits will be inaccessible for the next 48 hours
Starting today, thousands of subreddits, used as community pages, will go dark or be set to private mode for two days in protest of Reddit's new pricing policy.
Popular Canadian subreddits like r/Canada, r/Vancouver, r/Ontario, r/Alberta, r/Rogers and r/CanadaPS5 will all be inaccessible for the next 48 hours.
A pop-up message on the r/Canada subreddit page reads, "A recent Reddit policy change threatens to kill many beloved third-party mobile apps, making many quality-of-life features not seen in the official mobile app permanently inaccessible to users. If you, or someone you know has a visual impairment - these changes will also block the tools they use to access Reddit, as the Reddit website and official app are ill-designed and un-equipped to aid those with accessibility issues."
According to Reddark, a subreddit tracker, more than 7,000 subreddit pages are blacked out.
The online protest comes after Reddit announced it would start charging its application interface (API), which allows users to share Reddit content on third-party apps.
Currently, access to Reddit's API is free but will start charging users on July 1, 2023.
According to Reddit's CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman, third-party apps with more than 100 API queries per minute will be charged $0.24 for every 1,000 requests.
The new pricing policy will push out popular third-party apps.
Apollo, a third-party Reddit app with over 900,000 daily users, announced it will shut down on June 30.
The app offers users an alternative viewing experience to the official Reddit app, making it easier to access.
"Reddit's recent decisions and actions have unfortunately made it impossible for Apollo to continue," tweeted Apollo creator Christian Selig last Thursday. "Thank you so, so much for all the support over the years."
Apollo will close down on June 30th. Reddit’s recent decisions and actions have unfortunately made it impossible for Apollo to continue. Thank you so, so much for all the support over the years. ❤️ https://t.co/HOJaLMW8fx
— Christian Selig (@ChristianSelig) June 8, 2023
The Halifax-based created explained in a Reddit thread that under the website's new pricing policy, Apollo would have to pay "almost $2 million dollars per month or over $20 million per year."
New Reddit policy fuels online outrage.
"Welp, I've been on Reddit for 10+ years. It's the first thing I check every morning to get caught up on news and my hobbies. Feels weird to no longer have the app on my home screen, but I'm not coming back unless @apolloreddit gets to live," one user tweeted.
Welp, I've been on Reddit for 10+ years. It's the first thing I check every morning to get caught up on news and my hobbies. Feels weird to no longer have the app on my home screen but I'm not coming back unless @apolloreddit gets to live.#RedditBlackout #RedditGoesDark
— Stefan Peterson (@StefanTPeterson) June 12, 2023
i have no idea if the reddit blackout will work but god is it depressing to see one after another how reddit, tumblr, discord, even this shithole all implode because having a halfway decent space to exist online is just fundamentally incompatible with corporate profit motives https://t.co/750YAohhEQ
— andonia (@andoniaistrash) June 12, 2023
"The collective Reddit community effectively killing the site in protest with the #RedditBlackout is hugely impressive and will hopefully be a reminder to all social media companies that they are nothing without their users," another user adds.
The collective Reddit community effectively killing the site in protest with the #RedditBlackout is hugely impressive and will hopefully be a reminder to all social media companies that they are nothing without their users.
— Beans 🇬🇧 (@FullAhBeans) June 12, 2023
I support the Reddit blackout even though it sucks not to have the content for a bit. It’s for the greater good! #RedditBlackout
— Lindz (@LindzNicoleW) June 12, 2023
my favorite part of the reddit meltdown is how reddit leadership is clearly like, extremely mad that the third party reddit apps were profitable when the site itself wasn't. but like, apollo made about as much as the average mcdonalds franchise. that's what they were jealous of
— an actual dog (@devtesla) June 12, 2023
The protest also caused a general Reddit outage Monday morning, making content on the site inaccessible. A Reddit spokesperson told The Verge that "a significant number of subreddits shifting to private caused some expected stability issues."
