Tag: protest

Android Community

Reddit broken? It’s not broken, it’s a Reddit protest.

Reddit stock photo 7

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

TL;DR

  • On June 12, 2023, a major Reddit protest began.
  • The protest sees over 3,500 subreddits “going dark” to protest new site policies.
  • For at least the next 48 hours, huge chunks of Reddit will not work.

If you opened up Reddit today hoping to see some cute cat photos on r/Aww or to find out some new trivia on r/TodayILearned, you probably faced some problems doing so. Don’t worry; there’s nothing wrong with your phone or computer. Those popular subreddits voluntarily shut down in the form of protest.

Starting today, June 12, 2023, over 3,500 subreddits will “go dark” to protest planned changes to how the site treats third-party developers. In other words, the fact that you can’t access major sections of Reddit is not an accident but very much by design.

If that’s all you need to know, you can simply close Reddit and move on with your day. Theoretically, a large portion of those subreddits will be back on June 14. Until then, you’ll just need to not use Reddit, which, of course, is what the protestors are banking on. However, if you’re curious about why this is happening, we have a brief explanation below.

Background: How does Reddit work?

To understand this protest, you need first to understand how Reddit works. Reddit is made up of millions of subreddits, with each subreddit focused on a particular topic. For example, r/Marvel is centered on the Marvel universe. Likewise, r/Android is focused on Android phones and the operating system itself, while r/OnePlus is solely focused on OnePlus products. There are millions of subreddits, although only a tiny percentage of them are considered to be active.

Anyone can create a subreddit that focuses on any topic(s) they choose. However, each subreddit needs at least

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Android Community

Android subreddits go offline in protest of Reddit API

Reddit for Android

Reddit is one of the most useful websites on the planet for getting information from a large group of actual people, which makes various subreddits key to the internet as a whole. Now, as the result of protests over Reddit’s upcoming API changes, some of the most useful subreddits for Android have “gone dark.”

On July 1, Reddit will impose hefty fees on developers for the use of its API. This change is quite literally killing off many third-party Reddit clients, which are dying not because the API is coming with a cost, but because that cost is being implemented with a very very small window of time to make needed changes. The price is also very high, drastically more so than other platforms.

The added fees effectively eliminate free users, while also making existing paid users a financial burden on developers. The developer of Apollo, the most popular third-party Reddit client on iOS, says the new API would cost as much as $20 million per year. The added costs have also killed off some of Android’s best Reddit clients in Reddit is Fun (RIF) and Sync.

The death of these third-party clients doesn’t just come down to preference either. In many cases, these clients are far more advanced in terms of features compared to Reddit’s official offerings, especially when it comes to community moderation which – despite being handled almost entirely by unpaid volunteers – is a key part of how the website operates.

For those reasons, Reddit communities (known as “subreddits”) have been going offline today. The full list of affected communities totals over 6,000, including many of the site’s largest subreddits. The 48-hour shutdown (or indefinite, in some cases) is meant to call on Reddit to reverse its API changes for the sake of moderation.

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Android Community

Reddit communities go dark to protest upcoming API changes

What you need to know

  • Thousands of Reddit communities are inaccessible for a 48-hour period to protest the platform’s harsh API pricing changes.
  • The Apollo app, set to close June 30, can no longer afford to sustain operations after realizing it’d need to fork over $20 million per year to remain open.
  • Reddit remains adamant about its decision and has shown no signs of changing anything.

Redditors are acting upon their choice to go dark on Reddit for the next couple of days in protest against the platform’s API decision. Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman recently explained the upcoming API pricing changes for third-party apps, showing no signs of shying away. With them set to go into effect on July 1, Reddit’s changes will see prices skyrocket for third-party apps using the platform’s API to service its thousands and potentially millions of users.

The sharp increase is ludicrous, to say the least, and this is what caused one developer (among others) to speak up. Christian Selig, the creator of the Apollo app, posted on his application’s subreddit to discuss what was happening with Reddit and the proposed API alterations. With the new changes, Apollo would need to pay $0.24 for 1,000 API calls, and Selig states that at his app’s performance, that would see them paying $2 million per month, totaling the potential $20 million or more every single year.

At the time, Selig didn’t see a way to continue operating, stating, “This is going to require some thinking. I asked Reddit if they were flexible on this pricing or not, and they stated that it’s their understanding that no, this will be the pricing…”

Selig later posted again, this time on a sour note, alerting the Apollo subreddit of over 800,000 users that it would shutter its door on

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