If you hopped on Reddit to scroll through your favourite forums this week, you may have encountered “private” or “restricted” messages. That’s because thousands of subreddits chose to go dark in an ongoing protest of some controversial changes announced by the online discussion network.
“The analogy I like to use for Reddit is, Reddit is a city … and what we’re seeing today is a protest in our city,” Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told the Associated Press. “Protest and dissent is important … The problem with this one is it’s not going to change anything because we made a business decision that we’re not negotiating on.”
The company’s response to the blackout has fuelled further outrage among protest organizers, most recently after the move to replace moderators of protesting subreddits. “Reddit is built on volunteer moderation labour, including the creation and maintenance of many tools,” Gilbert said in a statement. “Without Reddit’s volunteer moderators, the site could likely see less helpful content, and more spam, misinformation and hate.”
Huffman and Reddit management also note that the new fees will only apply to eligible third-party apps that require high usage limits. According to Thursday metrics published by the company, 98% of apps will continue to have free access to the Data API as long as they’re not monetized and remain below Reddit’s data-usage threshold.
It’s hard to anticipate the total amount of money Reddit will save and earn after implementing charges for high-usage, third-party apps. But Huffman says the “pure infrastructure costs” of supporting these apps costs Reddit about $10 million each year.