EXPLAINER
Some 7,000 Reddit communities, numbering hundreds of millions of subscribers, are protesting new API pricing changes that could kill off third-party apps.
From June 12-14, thousands of Reddit communities, also known as subreddits, will go dark to protest planned API changes that would essentially remove many third-party apps.
Self-proclaimed as the “front page of the internet”, Reddit it is among the top 20 most popular websites and has an estimated 430 million monthly active users.
Over the course of 48 hours, the moderators will switch thousands of subreddits to private mode. Only community members approved by moderators will be able to view and participate in those channels. For everyone else, the pages will be inaccessible.
Some subreddits have said they will remain offline until the planned changes are reviewed or removed.
What is an API and what is Reddit changing?
APIs (application programming interfaces) are considered the backbone of the modern web. Simply put, they allow two apps to talk to each other, allowing developers to access data and create new features and functions.
Like all other tech companies, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, Reddit has a public API that developers can sign up for and use after agreeing to certain terms and conditions.
Until now, Reddit has offered free access to its API. However, on April 18, the company Announced that it was updating its API terms to include charging developers for API access, a change that will take effect on July 1, 2023.
Reddit’s decision comes months after Twitter announced it would discontinue all third-party apps, forcing people to use the platform’s official app and website.
In an April interview with the New York TimesReddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman said that “more than anywhere else on the Internet, Reddit is a home for authentic conversations.”
“Crawling Reddit, generating value, and not returning any of that value to our users is something we have a problem with,” Huffman continued.
Reddit provides a large amount of text from various communities, making it valuable for building AI (artificial intelligence) language models such as ChatGPT and Bard.
What do the changes mean for Reddit’s third-party apps?
Reddit has a large community of third-party app developers. These apps offer users additional features and customizations beyond those available in the app or the official Reddit website.
Under the new terms, apps with fewer than 100 queries per minute will remain free. These, according to huffmannthey represent more than 90 percent of current applications.
Third-party apps with higher API requests will be charged $0.24 per 1,000 requests.
One of the most popular third-party apps that is being shut down is Apollo, the popular iPhone and iPad app best known for its slick user interface and custom themes.
According to Christian Selig, creator of the Apollo app, the new price would cost him $20 million per year to continue operating at the current rate of seven billion monthly requests.
On June 8, Selig tweeted that Apollo will shut down on June 30, saying that “Recent decisions and actions by Reddit have sadly made it impossible for Apollo to continue.”
Apollo will close on June 30. Unfortunately, Reddit’s recent decisions and actions have made it impossible for Apollo to continue. Many, many thanks for all the support over the years. ❤️ https://t.co/HOJaLMW8fx
—Christian Selig (@ChristianSelig) June 8, 2023
Other big-name apps like Reddit is Fun, Sync, and Reddplant have also announced that they will be shutting down due to fees.
Following an uproar among users, Huffman, who calls himself u/spez, defended the changes in an action filled with “Ask me anything” open forum on friday. He said: “Reddit needs to be a self-sustaining business, and to do that we can no longer subsidize commercial entities that require large-scale data usage.”
Despite the widespread reaction, Huffman confirmed that the company has no plans to review upcoming API changes.
Which subreddits will be shut down?
Nearly 7,000 subreddits, some with tens of millions of subscribers, will be made private by their moderators starting June 12. Some of the larger communities that will be shutting down include:
- r/funny (49 million subscribers)
- r/games (37 million)
- r/aww (34 million)
- r/todayilearned (31 million)
- r/Photos (30 million)
- r/Videos (26 million)
- r/Music (23 million)
- r/food (23 million)
- r/Art (22 million)
- r/gadgets (21 million)
- r/sports (20 million)
thousands of others subreddits they have also signed up to participate in the protests.
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