Reddit API Changes Trigger Subreddit Blackout

In April 2023, Reddit announced plans to charge for API access at pricing that third-party app developers called prohibitively expensive; Apollo’s developer calculated a cost of $20 million per year to continue operating. The change was widely seen as designed to eliminate competing clients and force users onto the official Reddit app ahead of a planned IPO.

On June 12-14, 2023, over 8,000 subreddits, including many of Reddit’s largest communities, went dark in a coordinated blackout protest. Many communities extended the blackout indefinitely after Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman made dismissive comments about moderators and the protest. The conflict escalated as Reddit threatened to remove moderators who kept communities private.

Reddit experienced multiple service outages during the protest period, attributed to both traffic disruptions and technical issues. Popular third-party apps including Apollo for iOS, Reddit is Fun, Sync, and ReddIt shut down on July 1, 2023 when the API pricing took effect.