Most dark Reddit forums back in operation; CEO Huffman against third-party apps using API for free

As of June 15, over 80% of its top 5,000 communities were operational and expected to continue functioning similarly, the company said in a blog post. The number is down from the 8,000 communities that went dark when the protest first began.

However, Reddit chief executive Steve Huffman has told his employees in an internal memo they must “block out the noise” and that this blackout of subreddits will eventually pass, according to a report in tech publication The Verge.

“There’s a lot of noise with this one. Among the noisiest, we’ve seen. Please know that our teams are on it, and like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well,” the report said, quoting the memo.

It also said that Huffman told his employees that the blackout has not significantly impacted the company’s revenue.

“The only long-term solution is improving our product, and in the short term we have a few upcoming critical mod tool launches we need to nail,” it cited Huffman as saying.

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Huffman came out strongly against third-party apps using Reddit’s API for free as they used the data to build their own business. API, or application programming interface, is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other and is an accessible way to extract and share data within and across organisations.

“I didn’t know — and this is my fault — the extent that they were profiting off of our API. That these were not charities,” he told The Verge.

Why the protests?

In April, Reddit announced it would change its API pricing policy in a bid to generate revenue from companies that use its data to build and train artificial intelligence tools.

Every time someone uses a rideshare app or sends a mobile payment, they are using an API. In Reddit’s case, third-party apps have been using its free API to gather data or build apps.

So, Reddit’s decision to charge for its APIs starting July 1 meant it would cost these apps such as Apollo and Rif more. Consequently, these two biggest third-party apps have announced that they will shut down a day before the deadline.

The Reddit community and a large number of subreddits called for a protest against the company’s decision to charge for its API.

Huffman’s memo however said conversations with both Apollo and Rif are ongoing. “While the two biggest third-party apps, Apollo and RIF, along with a couple of others, have said they plan to shut down at the end of the month, we are still in conversation with some of the others.”