Reddit, one of the most visited websites in the world, has most of its forums gone dark. Find out what happened, and why it happened below.
Thousands of Subreddits Have Gone Dark To Protest
What Happened?
As Monday morning came, several thousand subreddits had gone dark in a concerted effort to protest against Reddit's jaw-dropping API pricing. This includes r/gachagaming, r/Music, r/YuGiOh, and r/WorldOfTanks. Major subreddits such as r/DIY, r/MildlyInteresting, and r/Food have also joined the protest. Some only go private for a few days, but some have committed to going completely dark indefinitely.
The Reddit Blackout is an extremely significant event for the site. The number of subreddits that have gone dark is in the 8000+ range, with a stream on Twitch tracking the stats out of the ones who had pledged. This means that the shown figure is likely far more than what is suggested when considering those who have not committed but joined the protest. This is a significant issue for Reddit primarily because it is an entirely community-driven website. Its users are the contributors, and when so many subreddits are inaccessible, there's no difference between that state and the site being shut down.
This is a fantastic feat to achieve as a community, considering that Reddit is one of the most visited websites in the world. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people's hearts, have been swayed to support the protest and lock their forums down.
Why Are Subreddits Going Dark?
In order to properly understand the situation, context is absolutely necessary.
Recently it was announced that Reddit's method of doing business, particularly regarding handling API access. To be short, they decided to charge for it. While this may be fine to an extent, the asking price Reddit higher-ups have decided on is absurd and far more than what the vast majority of third-party developers, who need that API access to function, can afford. This includes Apollo, a Reddit browsing app designed to streamline user experiences with powerful and fast features such as customizable gestures. For that app, Reddit is charging up to $20 million annually; an amount that's not feasible and would result in the app shutting down before the API access charging begins on July 1.
Other third-party applications include Reddit is Fun, Sync, Relay, and Redditoria; all of them will have to shut down before the charges begin. Why is there a need for third-party applications when a Reddit app is available, anyway? Well, the main app is slow, heavy, and entirely displeasing for most users due to their lack of specific accessibility options that made third-party applications famous in the first place. In other words, it sucks.
To protest this decision, over 8,000 subreddits have pledged to go dark at the start of June 12, with some forums also going dark despite not having pledged to join. Some have threatened to maintain their strike until several demands, all related to third-party applications, are met. These demands are the following:
- API technical issues
- Accessibility for blind people
- Parity in access to NSFW content
Contained within each demand is a set of suggestions made by the community to reach a compromise. For the first point, the community suggests allowing third-party apps to run their ads, bringing the API access charges down to the point where ad revenue or subscriptions could cover the costs, etc. The second is more of an appeal to Reddit in terms of their handling of third-party apps that allow the visually impaired from accessing the website, which third-party applications have managed to do in their stead. Lastly, the third point demands third-party apps to keep their access to NSFW support.
"Reddit needs to be a self-sustaining business, and to do that, we can no longer subsidize commercial entities that require large-scale data use," Reddit CEO Steve Huffman stated in an AMA.
More about their demands can be read here.
