Moderators of several popular Reddit communities have announced their decision to extend their blackout protests indefinitely. Initially, these subreddits had planned to participate in the protest against the company’s API changes from Monday to Wednesday of this week. However, the decision to prolong the demonstration came after Reddit CEO Steve Huffman reportedly sent a memo to staff expressing his belief that the situation would pass, provoking a strong response from the community.
In response to Huffman’s remarks, a user commented, “Let them f*** around and find out.” Moderators from well-known subreddits such as r/awww, r/music, r/videos, r/futurology, r/apple, and r/NBA, among others, expressed their commitment to an indefinite protest. The blackout is a response to Reddit’s decision to raise API prices significantly, a move reminiscent of Elon Musk’s tactics on Twitter, and it has effectively eliminated third-party Reddit clients, including the popular Apollo iOS app. As a result, Reddit’s own app has become the sole option for users. In a moderators’ thread highlighted by The Verge, u/SpicyThunder335 described Reddit’s app as “widely regarded as poor quality, not [accessible], and very difficult to use for moderation.”
