Reddit Communities are going ‘dark’ in protest against changes

Reddit's potential threat to third-party apps has prompted a protest in its community with dozens of subreddits declaring themselves as "going dark" from June 12. The protest is in response to API pricing increase which will deeply impact third-party clients.

Redditors are determined to either not be available for 48 hours or permanently until the company changes its policy. Platform users are calling on others to message Reddit administration, leave negative reviews or boycott the platform. The instigators are determined to ensure participants are "restrained, polite, reasonable and law-abiding."

Third-party apps like Apollo, Narwhal and Reddit is Fun, have announced that they may be not able to afford the new API pricing at all. Christian Selig, the creator of popular client Apollo, said the API might cost the company $20 million a year.

Reddit moderators are worried about the pricing changes which might compel many third-party apps to shut down and disable user access to customisations and other features not available on the official Reddit app. Developers are also afraid new API structure would prevent displaying not-safe-for-work content and limit ads that are key to making revenue.

Reddit's decision has come a few months after Twitter banned third-party apps and severely limited free access to its API. The move was aimed to control user experience and generate more money from ads.