Thousands of Reddit’s most popular communities are “doing dark” today in protest against unpopular pricing changes proposed by the site.

The subreddits impacted by the protest include r/gaming, which has over 37 million members, and r/music which has over 32 million. Other subreddits dedicated to specific fandoms, such as r/Succession and r/FrankOcean, have also temporarily been made private. In total, 3,489 subreddits are affected by the blackout.

While some of the moderators running these communities have said they will reopen the subreddits after 48 hours, others have said they may not come back until Reddit announces that it will scrap the upcoming changes. 

Here’s an explainer on why so many Reddits have gone private today.

WHAT ARE THE CHANGES?

In April, Reddit announced it would start charging app developers to access its application programming interface (API). Access to Reddit’s API has historically allowed third parties to access information on the website, which is necessary for developers to run alternative apps which platform content from Reddit.

Up until now, accessing the API was free for anyone. The changes are set to be introduced on June 19.

WHAT EXACTLY IS AN API?

If you aren’t massively into tech, you might be thinking: what is an API exactly? Well – Reddit’s database is packed with all the information that makes up the Reddit website such as the posts, the comments, and user profiles. So whenever you use an app which platforms content from Reddit – such as Apollo, Reddit is Fun, Sync or ReddPlanet – it’s because their developers are able to access Reddit’s API and show the site’s content on their app.

Now, Reddit is asking developers of apps which use the site’s content to pay a fee to access the site’s API. 

WHY ARE MODERATORS PROTESTING?

Many moderators are opposed to the change and have decided to temporarily make their subreddits ‘private’ to make their anger known. “Reddit relies on volunteer moderators to keep its platform welcoming and free of objectionable material. It also relies on uncompensated contributors to populate its numerous communities with content,” one moderator wrote on r/Jokes.

The decision to charge for access to Reddit’s API, they say, “promises to adversely impact both groups: Without effective tools (which Reddit has frequently promised and then failed to deliver), moderators cannot combat spammers, bad actors or the entities who enable either, and without the freedom to choose how and where they access Reddit, many contributors will simply leave… The very elements which differentiate Reddit – the foundations that draw its audience – will be eliminated, reducing the site to another dead cog in the Ennui Engine.”

In a group statement, the moderators of the thousands of subreddits that were joining the protest said: “On June 12th, many subreddits will be going dark to protest this policy. Some will return after 48 hours: others will go away permanently unless the issue is adequately addressed, since many moderators aren’t able to put in the work they do with the poor tools available through the official app. 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.”

HOW MUCH IS THE FEE?

Reddit has not revealed how much they will ask developers to pay to access its API, but one popular app named Apollo has claimed that it would be hit with a fee of more than $20 million dollars a year to keep up with their current rate of API usage.

“The price they gave was $0.24 for 1,000 API calls,” said a post on the Apollo subreddit (in this context, a “call” is when someone using the Apollo app views content from Reddit API). “With my current usage [that] would cost almost $2m per month, or over $20m per year.”

A Reddit spokesperson told the BBC that Apollo was “less efficient” than other third-party apps and claimed that Reddit spends “multi-millions of dollars on hosting fees” and “needs to be fairly paid” to continue supporting third-party apps. Reddit also previously announced it would not charge apps which make the platform more accessible.

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY APPS WHICH USE REDDIT’S API?

You might be wondering why there are so many apps which need access to Reddit’s API – why doesn’t everyone just use the official Reddit app?

While Reddit launched back in 2005, it didn’t release its own app until 2016. As a result, for years Reddit users had to rely on third-party apps – like the aforementioned Apollo, Reddit is Fun, Sync or ReddPlanet – to easily access Reddit on their phones. Even when Reddit released their own official app, many chose to stick with the alternative options – especially as the changes Reddit makes to its own app have sometimes proved to be unpopular. 

Apollo, Reddit Is Fun, Sync, and ReddPlanet have all said that the new costs will mean they will be forced to shut down on 30 June, and it’s likely others could follow suit.

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