Reddit Revolts: Are We Witnessing the Dark Age Of Reddit’s Third-Party Apps?

Welcome to the internet's favorite rabbit hole: Reddit, of course!

Get ready to lose yourself in a vortex of endless scrolling because once you enter Reddit, there's no turning back.

Recently it has been in the news; but for the wrong reasons.

In April, Reddit stated it would begin charging large-scale users for access to its application programming interface, or A.P.I. This allows third-party entities to download and analyze Reddit's massive collection of content, user behavior, ad conversions and discussion threads.

Companies such as Google, OpenAI and Microsoft have been using Reddit's data to develop artificial intelligence systems, which many in Silicon Valley regard as the next big thing. Reddit claimed it no longer wanted to give away such a precious commodity, as The New York Times reported.

Due to the company's new increased API fees, Apollo, one of the most popular iOS apps used to explore Reddit, will be shutting down.

Christian Selig, the app's developer, announced that the service would end on June 30th. Selig tweeted that "Apollo has been forced to shut down due to Reddit's recent decisions and actions."

“Reddit needs to be a self-sustaining business, and to do that, we can no longer subsidize commercial entities that require large-scale data use,” Steve Huffman, Reddit’s chief executive, said on Friday in an “Ask Me Anything” discussion on the site.

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Watch out, world! Developers on Reddit are unleashing their digital fury as pages go dark to protest the company's new third-party app policy.

The power of developers working together can make even the strongest policies tremble, so sit back and enjoy the show.

Hundreds of subreddit administrators blocked access to their communities protesting Reddit's intention to start charging outside developers for the data required to run apps on the platform.

Some have speculated that the new pricing structure may make it unfeasible for many users to continue using their favorite third-party apps to access the site, post comments and download content. Others have said that the accusations have spread doubt about the effectiveness of moderators’ methods to steer discussions. About 57 million individuals use the site each day, the New York Times added.

Noah Carver, one of the r/blind moderators, said in a statement on behalf of his group: “The proposed changes to Reddit’s A.P.I. will not only isolate blind users from a social network used by millions of people, thus disconnecting us from the wider world; they will also largely decimate communities for blind people — and disabled people in general — which have thrived on Reddit despite the company’s perceived indifference.”

TechDogs-"A Subreddit Announcing Protest Against The New Reddit Policy"

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Can Reddit find the light amidst this digital rebellion? Will Reddit heed the call for change or become a shadow of its former self? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

First published on Thu, Jun 15, 2023

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