Reddit is one of the world’s most popular websites, subreddit have relied on third-party apps that offer a different user interface, advanced features, accessibility features, and/or an ad-free experience.
Many of Reddit's communities, known as subreddits, are going private for 48 hours starting Monday to protest the platform charging for access to its application programming interface (API), leading to several third-party apps shutting down on June 30. More than 100 subreddits have started protesting, with some planning to be private indefinitely.users said the strike would end if Reddit addresses API issues, increases accessibility for blind users and creates parity for access to content not safe for work.
Gradually over the last decade, Reddit went from merely embarrassing but occasionally amusing, to actively harmful, to—mainly by accident—essential. As the platform that swallowed niche message boards, it became home to numerous small communities of surprisingly helpful enthusiasts, and grew into a repository of arcane knowledge about, and instantly available first-hand expertise on, a staggering number of topics, from the demographically predictable to the somewhat more surprising. And now that is all set to come to an ignominious, self-inflicted end.
Some of the most popular apps, like Apollo and RIF, have already announced that, due to the high price set by Reddit for API access, they will be shutting down. What was painted by Reddit management, initially, as an attempt to force the deep-pocketed developers of large language model AI programs to pay for access to a massive trove of precious natural language now looks more like a grubby attempt to kill off third-party apps, and force all Reddit users into official, and more easily monetizable, channels.
Apollo developer Christian Selig, for example, says he’ll be on the hook for about $20 million per year based on the updated pricing. Three days ago, moderators on the r/Blind subreddit posted an extensive message protesting the pricing changes, which could be hugely detrimental to apps for screen reader users like RedditForBlind and Luna For Reddit.
Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt says in a statement to The Verge “We’ve connected with select developers of non-commercial apps that address accessibility needs and offered them exemptions from our large-scale pricing terms,”
Reddit is creating an exemption to its unpopular new API pricing terms for makers of accessibility apps, which could come as a big relief for some developers worried about how to afford the potentially expensive fees and the users that rely on the apps to browse Reddit. As long as those apps are noncommercial and “address accessibility needs,” they won’t have to pay to access Reddit’s data
CEO Steve Huffman was Asked, in a disastrous public question-and-answer session, if Reddit was becoming too profit-driven, d bluntly,he answered “We’ll continue to be profit-driven until profits arrive. Unlike some of the 3P apps, we are not profitable.”
Reddit already gave all its data to large companies for free. Huffman is trying to charge now for horses that were let out of the barn years ago. And he obviously doesn’t care about Apollo or other third-party Reddit clients, or what these moves do to Reddit’s reputation as a platform vendor. He’s just trapped in a fantasy where investors are going to somehow see Reddit as a player in the current moment of AI hype.
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