Reddit users, subreddits going dark next week over third-party app access

Users don't like the idea of pricey APIs.

Reddit users across a number of subreddits will be going dark for 48 hours next week in response to changes that will impact third-party apps.

“Recently, Reddit has significantly increased its API pricing, rendering it increasingly unaffordable for third-party app developers to continue their services,” reads a portion of an open letter penned by moderators representing a number of subreddits.

“The prohibitive cost threatens to make it difficult to mod from mobile, stifle innovation, limit user choice, and effectively shut down a significant portion of the culture we’ve all come to appreciate,” the letter continued.

The API changes will not only impact apps like Apollo and Reddit is Fun, but will impact the way in which volunteers actually moderate forums.

“Many of us rely on third-party apps to manage our communities effectively,” reads another portion of the letter.

“Let’s just rip the band-aid right off: in many cases these apps offer superior mod tools, customization, streamlined interfaces, and other quality of life improvements that the official app does not offer. The potential loss of these services due to the pricing change would significantly impact our ability to moderate efficiently, thus negatively affecting the experience for users in our communities and for us as mods and users ourselves.”

As a response, a number of subreddits including r/gaming, r/PS5, r/minecraft, r/pics, r/videos, and more will go into private mode, meaning they won’t be accessible at all. Additional subreddits including r/nintendo will go into read-only mode, which means new conversations will not be possible. The goal of these changes are to limit ad revenue that would normally be generated through regular Reddit usage.

The blackout is expected to last at least 48 hours from 12 June (likely 13 June here in Australia).

The API changes are currently slated to kick in from 1 July.