Reddit: Protest against billing

Reddit: Protest against billing

San Francisco, 6/13/2023

More than 7,000 Reddit communities have pulled out to date to protest the company’s new developer billing structure.

Blackout organizers are protesting Reddit’s upcoming hefty fee for API access, which will force many third-party app developers to shut down.

Because of the new fees, Apollo, the most popular third-party app on Reddit, will be retired at the end of this month. According to Apollo developer Christian Selig, Reddit would have to pay $20 million a year for its app because of the new pricing.

As of today, due to the changes, moderators of many subreddits, including popular subreddits like r/funny and r/gaming, will have limited access to their communities. While some communities are protesting privately for 48 hours, others plan to remain private until the changes are fixed.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has defended the API changes, stating that in order to become a self-sustaining business, the platform can no longer support commercial businesses that rely on heavy data usage.