Moderators from numerous Reddit communities have decided to extend their blackout protest indefinitely, in response to woke CEO Steve Huffman brushing off their concerns and stating in an internal memo that “like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well.”
The Verge reports that the moderators of Reddit are protesting recent API changes with a prolonged blackout of multiple subreddits. Due to the company’s failure to address the moderators’ primary concerns, the protest, which was initially scheduled to span from Monday to Wednesday, has now been extended indefinitely.
“Reddit has budged microscopically,” said a moderator known as u/SpicyThunder335 on the r/ModCoord subreddit. The moderator said that despite an announcement that access to a popular data-archiving tool for moderators would be restored, “our core concerns still aren’t satisfied, and these concessions came prior to the blackout start date; Reddit has been silent since it began.”
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman posted an internal memo on the issue, stating that “like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well.” u/SpicyThunder335 noted that “more is needed for Reddit to act.”
The recent price adjustments to Reddit’s API, which many moderators think are excessively pricey, sparked the blackout protest. Subreddits are being made secret or restricted as part of the protest, thus blocking them from the broader user base.
Over 300 subreddits have agreed to an indefinite blackout, including some of the platform’s most well-known groups including r/aww, r/music, and r/videos. The fact that these forums have tens of millions of users shows how significantly the protest has affected society.
More than 8,400 subreddits have gone private or into a restricted mode since the blackout. However, u/SpicyThunder335 admitted that not all subreddits would be able to participate in the blackout due to a number of factors. “For example, r/stopDrinking represents a valuable resource for a communities in need, and the urgency of getting the news of the ongoing war out to r/Ukraine obviously outweighs any of these concerns,” they said.
In place of this, u/SpicyThunder335 proposed a “weekly gesture of support on ‘Touch-Grass-Tuesdays,’” which would be up to the discretion of each communities.
Reddit’s official response has been noticeably absent despite the rising outcry. Reddit’s representative Tim Rathschmidt declined to comment when prompted.
Read more at the Verge here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan