The protest against Reddit’s controversial effort to charge access to its API was expected to end today. But it looks like thousands of subreddits will remain dark in an effort to pressure Reddit to abandon its plan.
The protest started on Monday, and culminated in over 8,400 subreddits going private, preventing millions of users from accessing or posting to the platform’s most popular forum pages, such as r/nba, r/science, and r/videos.
The protest was supposed to last 48 hours, but as of Wednesday morning, around 6,500 subreddits remained private, according to Reddark, which is tracking the protests. Participating subreddits include r/aww, r/funny, and r/music — all of which have tens of millions of followers.
“If or when /r/aww returns will depend on Reddit's continued responses to the situation,” the subreddit posted on its page, which continues to block access. Others such as r/video and r/nba mention they’ve gone private “indefinitely” to protest the API change.
Reddit didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But CEO Steve Huffman sent a memo to employees telling them the ongoing blackout “will pass,” as other Reddit protests have, The Verge reports.
“We do anticipate many of them will come back by Wednesday, as many have said as much,” Huffman said. “We have not seen any significant revenue impact so far and we will continue to monitor.”
The memo apparently prompted one forum moderator to call on the protesting subreddits to remain dark indefinitely. “300+ subs have already announced that they are in it for the long haul, prepared to remain private or otherwise inaccessible indefinitely until Reddit provides an adequate solution,” the moderator wrote.
The r/pcgaming subreddit says it’ll remain private until June 19th, “or until the Reddit admins come to the table with reasonable API pricing.”
"Due to Reddit's unwillingness to adopt a more reasonable API pricing structure the r/pcgaming mod team has decided to stand with the rest of Reddit's moderator community in extending our blackout,” the subreddit said.
Still, dozens of other popular subreddits—such as r/gaming, r/books, r/gadgets, r/sports, and r/technology—are proving Huffman right, and are once again public. However, some are calling those subreddits to join the ongoing blackout.
“If you actually want to make a change then real sacrifice needs to be on the table and your two day ‘commitment’ ain't it,” wrote one user on r/gadgets.
“??If your protest has an end date it’s not a protest, it’s an inconvenience,” wrote another on r/technology.