Thousands of communities on Reddit are participating in one of the largest protests the social networking platform has seen , as users express their displeasure.
See also: Reddit: Several apps are shutting down due to new API prices
The voluntary outages are affecting the platform’s largest online communities, including beloved groups devoted to music, history, sports, and video games. With restrictions on the public visibility of these groups, it’s harder to find content in them. There are protests across more than 20 subreddits that have at least 10 million subscribers, and there are thousands of smaller networks participating.
Monday's protests reflect widespread anger over a plan by Reddit to impose millions of dollars in fees on some apps that would continue to access the platform. Reddit's top app developers announced they were closing because they couldn't afford the new financial costs expected to begin next month due to the plan.
The heated confrontation between Reddit's management and its users and developers suggests a major change for the platform. According to reports, it is expected to be announced later this year. For several years, users of the application were able to read posts, write comments and share photos and videos on Reddit through third-party applications.
See also: Reddit is reportedly cutting 5% of its workforce
Reddit currently charges app developers large sums of money to maintain the same level of access through its application programming interface (API). The move is apparently aimed at improving monetization of the app’s users. Last week, the developer of the popular app Apollo, Christian Selig, reported that Reddit was asking him to pay $20 million a year to continue using his app. He later said that he had no other option but to shut down the app.
Tensions have been running high on Reddit among some members of the developer community, as they appear to be misinterpreting the details of a private conversation between Reddit and Selig, implying that the platform blackmailed him. Selig recorded his phone conversation with the company, which Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffmanin a Q&A with users.
Selig's app is just one victim of the upcoming changes. Critics on Reddit say the platform's high prices will make it difficult for competitors to compete against Reddit's own app. Many users have expressed their dissatisfaction with the app, considering it slow and buggy.
See also: Apollo: Reddit app may stop working
Some Reddit users defending the platform have said that it has the right to set its own prices for API access and control how users access data on the platform it provides, as it is a business. Some users said they were unaware that they could access Reddit through third-party applications.
