BNR – Major subreddits have gone private in protest over changes to Reddit API pricing that affect third-party applications. The Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, Star Wars, Cyberpunk 2077, and other well-known subreddits are among the protesters.
Previously, users could explore all of the regular discussions around new announcements and controversial subjects by browsing these subreddits. The Xbox, Nintendo, and PS5 pages, on the other hand, are now empty.
Some of these subreddits are becoming private. This means that they are only accessible to invited members, and no new members will be approved. Others, on the other hand, are completely closed off. Some, such as the Star Wars and Cyberpunk subreddits, are still active but won’t be for long, either temporarily or permanently.
The surge of subreddits going private is a consequence of Reddit’s new pricing approach. The firm hiked the price of its API, which third-party programmers use to access and use Reddit information.
Reddit Users Rally Against New API Changes
Despite being announced a few months ago, the magnitude of the modifications was revealed only recently, in June. The developer of Apollo announced that it will now cost upwards of $20 million per year to run.
Millions of people use Apollo to explore and view Reddit postings. Apollo declared its closure on 30 June 2023, leading the users of Reddit to act.
“This subreddit is temporarily private as part of a joint protest to Reddit’s recent API changes,” the PS5 subreddit stated. “[It] breaks third-party apps and moderation tools, effectively forcing users to use the official Reddit app.”
“We will be participating in the API protests indefinitely, at your request,” said the Cyberpunk 2077 subreddit. “We were going to open up in private but many people expressed their concerns of that undermining the protest.”
It is unknown when or if this outrage will stop. When asked about the policy on 9 June, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman showed no evidence of modifying it.
