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Reddit protest campaign: what's behind it

12.6.2023

Translation: machine translated

Thousands of subreddits have been unavailable since this morning. But Reddit is not broken, it is a protest action against Reddit itself.

Have you been on Reddit today? Then you may have noticed that several thousand subreddits are offline or no longer publicly accessible. This is not for technical reasons. Instead of taking to the streets as in real life, the subreddits are going offline, or "private", in protest against the platform itself. The protest is expected to last until Wednesday. Some of the subreddits taking part in the protest have millions of users who can no longer access the content.

What's behind this

Reddit started out as a simple discussion forum à la "Gutefrage.net". Today it is a platform for millions. For a long time, Reddit did not offer a mobile solution for its own site. That's why third-party providers such as Apollo, Sync and ReddPlanet stepped in and helped the medium enter the mobile age.

Thousands of subreddits are offline until Wednesday
Source: Florian Bodoky

Reddit has now caught up and offers its own app that allows you to consume the content - and, if some third-party suppliers have their way, now wants to cash in. Third parties are to pay to implement Reddit in their own apps, and not too cheaply. Supplier Apollo calculates that the so-called API (Application Programming Interface) costs will ultimately amount to around 20 million US dollars. Christian Selig, developer of the Apollo app, believes that this is absolutely exorbitant. The service has therefore announced that it will no longer offer the integration of Reddit in its app from the end of June.

Reddit sees this differently. With regard to its own hosting costs, it considers the fee to be adequate.

Does it make a difference?

In contrast to other social media platforms, not only the content but also the administration of the subreddits is "community-based". These are therefore maintained by private Reddit users. They are quite prepared to extend the protest campaign beyond the announced 48 hours. With subreddits such as r/Music with around 32 million people, this could create a certain amount of pressure. However, the opinions of the admins are divided - which could ultimately play into Reddit's hands.

Cover photo: Florian Bodoky

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Florian Bodoky

Editor

Florian.Bodoky@digitecgalaxus.ch

I've been tinkering with digital networks ever since I found out how to activate both telephone channels on the ISDN card for greater bandwidth. As for the analogue variety, I've been doing that since I learned to talk. Though Winterthur is my adoptive home city, my heart still bleeds red and blue.

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