Reddit, a gargantuan community networking platform, experienced a significant outage on the first day of a widespread protest against the planned changes to its application programming interface (API) pricing. The blackout occurred simultaneously as thousands of subreddits went dark to express their dissatisfaction with the new API pricing terms.

Reddit Faces Major Outage

Tim Rathschmid, a spokesperson for Reddit, told the Verge that the blackout was the primary cause of the technical difficulties. He stated:

“A significant number of subreddits shifting to private caused some expected stability issues, and we’ve been working on resolving the anticipated issue.”

The problems began on Monday morning, with Reddit’s status page reporting a “major outage” affecting its desktop and mobile sites, as well as its native mobile apps. In a message, Reddit acknowledged the content loading issues and assured users that they were actively working on resolving the problems.

By 11:47 AM ET, the company noted improvements across the site and anticipated a recovery for most users, while continuing to monitor the situation closely.

During the outage, several people reported being unable to load Reddit.com, although certain subreddits remained accessible. Downdetector, a site tracking user reports of issues, received around 43,000 reports at the peak of the problems, but these numbers have since decreased significantly.

Source: Downdetector

Additionally, a Twitch stream that had been tracking the number of private subreddits also experienced technical difficulties due to the outage, although it has since returned to normal operation.

Protest Against Reddit’s API Pricing Changes

The protest against the API pricing changes has prompted more than 7,000 subreddits to either go private or become read-only. As a result, developers of popular Reddit apps such as Apollo for Reddit, have announced plans to shut down by the end of the month.

The new pricing structure poses a significant financial burden and even closure, for developers, with Christian Selig, the creator of Apollo for Reddit, revealing that the app’s operation would cost him over $20 million annually.

Source: Reddit

Apollo for Reddit is one of the most popular ways people use to access Reddit and it has over 1.5 million monthly active users. This means that Reddit’s policy change will directly shut down these users’ favorite way to use Reddit. Unsurprisginly, users are unhappy about the change.

Redditors are also concerned about the impact of the API changes on accessibility apps, although Reddit has stated that exceptions will be made for such apps. While many subreddits are participating in a 48-hour blackout from June 12th to June 14th, some have chosen to remain private indefinitely until their concerns are addressed by the second most trusted social media site.

CEO Steve Huffman, during an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session on Friday, reaffirmed the company’s stance, which subsequently angered numerous Reddit users and prompted some subreddits to go private earlier than planned. Responding to a question by a Redditor regarding Selig’s claims, Huffman stated:

“His “joke” is the least of our issues. His behavior and communications with us have been all over the place—saying one thing to us while saying something completely different externally; recording and leaking a private phone call—to the point where I don’t know how we could do business with him.

When asked by The Verge if there were any plans to revise the API pricing, Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt stated that the company had no intention of making any changes to the announced pricing structure.

Impact of Reddit’s New Pricing Structure

Looking at Reddit’s Statistics, in 2022, Reddit experienced a massive influx of user-generated content, with 8.33 billion pieces of content created on the platform. According to Statista, this included over 2.8 billion comments in response to various posts.

Number of pieces of content created on Reddit in 2022(in millions)
Source: Statista

Additionally, Reddit users engaged in more than four billion chats and exchanged approximately 912 million private messages, highlighting the platform’s lively and active online community.

The introduction of a new pricing structure on the platform will likely have significant implications for both registered users and content creators. It will eliminate a vast majority of 3rd party apps that make use of the API.

This change might lead to a decline in the number of registered users, as some may only use Reddit for or because of these 3rd party apps.

As the protest continues and subreddits remain inaccessible, the future of Reddit’s API pricing remains uncertain. The clash between the platform and its user base highlights the importance of finding a balance between sustainable business practices and maintaining an open and thriving community.

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