Reddit users begin subreddit blackout in protest against major site changes

Having a place to discuss all things video games, movies, TV and everything in between is one of the reasons Reddit is one of the most popular discussion forums on the planet.

So, what if that platform gets taken away? Well for starters and most importantly, it would remove the voice of millions of users and surely there would be uproar if the powers that be removed said voice, right?

Well, that is exactly what’s happening today. However, it’s not the powers that be that are taking away that voice, it’s the Reddit community and they have a good reason why such drastic action is being taken. As of now, Reddit is down.

As reported by Variety, thousands of Reddit discussion forums have “gone dark” in a two-day protest against the company’s decision to charge for the use of third-party apps for API (Application Programming Interface) to access the website.

According to Reddark, over 6,500 subreddits have gone dark in the act of protest. This explains why I was unable to access a Red Dead Redemption 2 post I attempted to view. Some of the subreddits impacted include r/art, r/aww, r/DIY, r/food, r/funny, r/gaming, r/history, r/Music, r/science, r/sports and r/todayilearned. Several gaming topics are impacted too like r/redeadredemption, r/harrypottergame, and r/playstation.

“I think the problem Digg had is that it was a company that was built to be a company, and you could feel it in the product,” reads a notice on the r/gaming forum page. “The way you could criticise Reddit is that we weren't a company – we were all heart and no head for a long time. So I think it'd be really hard for me and for the team to kill Reddit in that way.”

The pricing scheme is intended to go live on 1 July 2023. In a post on Friday 9 June 2023, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said that he understands the “frustration”, but “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.”

Unfortunately, not only has the move angered the Reddit masses, but it has forced some companies to close down, such as the app Apollo. Christian Selig, the developer of the Reddit client app Apollo said that the new pricing scheme would cost the company up to $20 million per year. As a result of this potential cost, the app is expected to close on 30 June 2023.

It remains to be seen whether the powers that be at Reddit will make a dramatic U-turn, but we wouldn't recommend holding your breath anytime soon.