In the aftermath of mass subreddit protests that have essentially shut down large portions of Reddit over API price changes, the question became whether or not the massively popular website would capitulate or double down on its plans.
Based on comments that Reddit CEO Steve Huffman shared in an internal memo leaked to Mia Sato and Jay Peters at The Verge, the answer, for now at least, is that the site expects to do as it planned.
“There’s a lot of noise with this one. Among the noisiest we’ve seen. Please know that our teams are on it, and like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well,” Huffman told Reddit employees on Monday afternoon. “The most important things we can do right now are stay focused, adapt to challenges, and keep moving forward. We absolutely must ship what we said we would. The only long term solution is improving our product, and in the short term we have a few upcoming critical mod tool launches we need to nail.
Huffman added that Reddit had “not seen any significant revenue impact so far.”
The mass protest now includes over 8,400 subreddits, including some of the biggest sports-related subreddits on the site. And in light of Huffman’s comments, some of them are now planning to extend their protest beyond the initial June 14 timeframe.
Per The Verge:
Ahead of the Tuesday post, more than 300 subreddits had committed to staying dark indefinitely, SpicyThunder335 said. The list included some hugely popular subreddits, like r/aww (more than 34 million subscribers), r/music (more than 32 million subscribers), and r/videos (more than 26 million subscribers). Even r/nba committed to an indefinite timeframe at arguably the most important time of the NBA season. But SpicyThunder335 invited moderators to share pledges to keep the protests going, and the commitments are rolling in.
The coordinated protest has been in the works since last week when moderators learned that some of Reddit’third-party apps said they wouldn’t be able to afford the site’s updated API pricing. Some developers, including those who run Apollo for Reddit, announced they would be shutting down their apps rather than pay the new API prices, which would put them in excess of $20 million a year.
Where things go from here is anyone’s guess. It’s likely that many of those subreddits will return to their normal activity on Thursday. However, some won’t. And a few, including r/CFL, are considering leaving the platform altogether and moving their community elsewhere.
One more note on this, me & the lads who run r/CFL are having contingency discussions right now as Reddit may become too unstable for our community and discourse.
Right now we’re investigating Discord (we have one it’s just dorment) but I’d love to know everyone’s suggestions. https://t.co/QhCyxiCMf8
— r/CFL on Reddit (@cfl_reddit) June 12, 2023
While Elon Musk isn’t involved in Reddit, you can lay some of the blame at his feet. After he started restricting third-party apps on Twitter, many of the other major social media platforms and websites took that as a cue to do the same. It’s part of a push to make these sites profitable after years of promoting a focus on user flexibility and openness. However, you could argue the cat’s out of the bag given how long people have been able to use these sites and services for free, not to mention be the ones moderating and running them, as in the case of Reddit.
Maybe this does all blow over. Maybe it irreparably changes why people enjoy Reddit. Or maybe it lands somewhere in the middle. But it does seem like this battle between a financially motivated CEO and community-based users isn’t over yet.
