Over 6K subreddits go dark to protest Reddit’s new API pricing

SAN FRANCISCO: Following the upcoming application programming interface (API) pricing changes at the social discussion platform Reddit, more than 6,000 subreddits have gone dark, including many of the platform's most-subscribed communities such as r/funny, r/aww, r/gaming, r/music, and r/science, meaning these communities are no longer publicly accessible, even to Reddit users previously subscribed to them.

Many subreddits taking part in the protest will go private for 48 hours, from June 12 to June 14, but some plan to remain private until things change, reports The Verge.

"This isn't something any of us do lightly: we do what we do because we love Reddit, and we truly believe this change will make it impossible to keep doing what we love," r/Toptomcat was quoted as saying.

Christian Selig, the Apollo app developer who posted about Reddit's API pricing that sparked much of the initial outrage, said seeing Reddit's community unite against the proposed changes was "incredibly amazing".

"I really hope Reddit listens," he wrote in a post on the Apollo subreddit.

"I think showing humanity through apologizing for and recognizing that this process was handled poorly, and concrete promises to give developers more time, would go a long way to making people feel heard and instilling community confidence," Selig added.

Last week, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman hosted an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session to discuss the platform's controversial API changes, confirming that Reddit is not planning to revive its coming API pricing changes that have caused multiple developers to announce they will be shutting down their apps.

In the session, Huffman continued his accusations against Selig's "behaviour and communications" as being "all over the place" and saying he couldn't see Reddit working with the developer further, TechCrunch reported.