Protest Persists, Leaving Thousands of Reddit Communities in Darkness

The backlash against Reddit’s API changes continues, with thousands of subreddits still participating in the protest. Despite the pressure, Reddit remains firm in its decision to implement these changes. Currently, there are over 5,000 subreddits that remain dark, including some of the platform’s most popular communities with millions of subscribers each.

Notable subreddits like r/funny, r/aww, r/Music, r/science, and r/videos are inaccessible due to being private. Others, such as r/pics and r/Art, are restricted, allowing users to view old posts but not submit new content. The last new posts from these communities were made on June 12th before the protest began.

At its peak, the protest saw over 8,000 subreddits going dark. This massive number of private subreddits caused stability issues for the site, making it difficult for users to access public content.

The API changes initially announced in April were meant to allow AI researchers to use Reddit’s content for training language models. However, they are also part of Reddit’s efforts to become profitable ahead of its expected IPO. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman explained that the company needs to control costs and generate profits. Despite the protests, Reddit remains resolute in implementing the changes.

When queried about the situation, a Reddit spokesperson stated that there are no plans to alter the announced API updates. The spokesperson emphasized that Reddit incurs significant hosting fees and needs fair compensation to support third-party apps. Reddit has made some exceptions for certain apps, but this has not assuaged the concerns of protesting moderators.