{"id":495963,"date":"2023-06-12T10:37:12","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T08:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=495963"},"modified":"2023-06-12T10:38:20","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T08:38:20","slug":"massive-reddit-protest-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet\/495963-massive-reddit-protest-begins.html","title":{"rendered":"Massive Reddit protest begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millions of Reddit fans will find themselves locked out of their favourite pages in the coming days, as moderators take a stance against plans for the platform to charge third-party app developers for access to the site\u2019s data.<\/p>\n

The protest is expected to last at least 48 hours, although some groups have signalled they will stay dark for longer. Here\u2019s everything we know right now:<\/p>\n

Why can\u2019t I access my favourite subreddit?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

More than 3,000 subreddit groups\u00a0\u2014\u00a0communities dedicated to particular interests on the platform\u00a0\u2014 are \u201cgoing dark\u201d\u00a0for at least two days\u00a0from Monday to protest a decision to increase charges for third-party app developers.<\/p>\n

Some of the biggest subreddits, including r\/apple, r\/videos, r\/sports and r\/MildlyInteresting\u00a0have already blocked public access to their pages.<\/p>\n

At issue is the cost of accessing Reddit Inc.\u2019s application programming interface, or API.<\/p>\n

Attempting to access the r\/apple page currently brings up a message that reads:\u00a0\u201cR\/apple is\u00a0 a private community.<\/p>\n

We stand in solidarity with numerous people who need access to the API, including bot developers, people with accessibility needs (r\/blind) and 3rd party app users (Apollo, Sync, etc).\u201d<\/p>\n

Will there be any way to access those subreddits during the dark period?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There are four types of communities on Reddit, according to the company \u2014\u00a0public, restricted, private and premium-only.<\/p>\n

When a\u00a0subreddit is private, the only way to view it is if you have been granted direct access by a moderator, according to the site\u2019s FAQs.<\/p>\n

With such a vast number of users in many of these forums, it\u2019s unlikely that moderators will be granting access to large numbers of users during the blackout period.<\/p>\n

What does\u00a0Reddit want\u00a0to charge\u00a0for?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Reddit wants to charge developers of third-party apps, such as Apollo and Sync \u2014\u00a0which have been built\u00a0to help users navigate the sprawling site\u00a0\u2014\u00a0for pulling in data\u00a0such as user\u00a0posts and reader\u00a0comments.<\/p>\n

The apps\u2019 developers say the API charges are prohibitive.<\/p>\n

Apollo, for example,\u00a0 claims\u00a0it would be forced to pay Reddit $20 million per\u00a0year.<\/p>\n

A Reddit post on the\u00a0r\/ApolloApp group on Friday said the app would be forced to close down. Others have said the same.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

As the subreddit blackout begins, I wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to the Reddit community and everyone standing up ❤️ Let’s hope Reddit listens\u00a0https:\/\/t.co\/h6cSYTBZhH<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Christian Selig (@ChristianSelig)\u00a0June 12, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

What does Reddit Inc. say?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A company spokesman said Reddit spends millions on hosting its content and \u201cneeds to be fairly paid<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to continue supporting high-usage third-party apps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Reddit chief executive officer Steve Huffman broke his silence on the furore, with an \u201cask me anything<\/strong><\/a>\u201d session hosted on the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cReddit needs to be a self-sustaining business, and to do that, we can no longer subsidise commercial entities that require large-scale data use,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

What are competitors doing?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Elon Musk\u2019s Twitter set the tone for charging for previously-free API access\u00a0in February<\/a><\/strong>, arguing along similar lines that it too seeks to be compensated for providing a service.<\/p>\n

Meta Platforms Inc. has joined Twitter in also promoting a paid service tier for users, making verification and other basic functionality a premium component.<\/p>\n

When are the changes being made?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Reddit plans to introduce its new pricing structure on July 1. A number of third-party apps, including\u00a0Apollo<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Sync<\/a>,<\/strong>\u00a0have said they will shut down\u00a0on June 30 as a result.<\/p>\n

What else is\u00a0Reddit doing?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In addition to charging third parties for data, Reddit said it was\u00a0eliminating about 90 full-time jobs<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and plans to reduce hiring to 100 new roles, from 300 previously.<\/p>\n

The company currently has about 2,000 full-time employees. The platform filed confidentially for an initial public offering in late 2021, but the action stalled.<\/p>\n

Now read: Screenshots of Meta\u2019s Twitter rival leaked<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 3,000 subreddit groups\u00a0\u2014\u00a0communities dedicated to particular interests on the platform\u00a0\u2014 are \u201cgoing dark\u201d\u00a0for at least two days\u00a0from Monday to protest a decision to increase charges for third-party app developers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":495965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[86963,54371,87083,8045,12763],"class_list":["post-495963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-apis","tag-apollo","tag-online-forums","tag-reddit","tag-steve-huffman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495979,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495963\/revisions\/495979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}