Thousands of Reddit communities have gone dark this week in protest of upcoming API changes, which include a controversial policy that will charge some third-party apps for continued use.
FILE - The Reddit app icon is seen on a smartphone on Feb. 28, 2023, in Marple Township, Pa. More than 8,000 subreddits, or Reddit communities, have gone dark as of Tuesday, June 13, in protest of upcoming API changes, which include a controversial policy that will charge some third-party apps for continued use.
Organizers of the blackout, which began Monday, say Reddit's changes threaten to end key ways of historically customizing the platform — which relies heavily on the work of volunteer moderators. Subreddit “mods" often use tools outside of the official app to keep their forums free of spam and hateful content, for example, as well as improve accessibility.
“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 wrote in a Friday “ask me anything” on the platform, where he took questions from users about the changes. “While Reddit has promised that moderation tools will not be affected by changes to the API, many moderators rely on third party apps and access to data archives to effectively do their work,” Sarah Gilbert, postdoctoral associate at Cornell University and Citizens and Technology Lab research manager, said in a statement — later pointing to how risks of moderator burnout and essential retention.
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