ALBAWABA - Thousands of Reddit communities have gone dark in protest of new Application programming interfaces (API) pricing restrictions.
Reddit is considered among the top 20 most popular websites on the internet, it generates a whopping number of 430 million monthly active users. A day ago Reddit announced that it is changing its API terms and conditions which made multiple of Reddit's communities go dark in protest of how it is being run.
On Monday, more than 7000 subreddits shut down and that is an issue for Reddit because it relies heavily on its community moderation.
Application programming interfaces (API) are usually used on a daily basis by many companies such as streaming services, social media applications and software upgrades for specific applications. Reddit also relies heavily on API for it to function properly.
A Moderator told the BBC that the protest was about "strength in numbers'' so that they could get the attention of Reddit's admins and the only way to do it was to harm its traffic.
This issue was caused because Reddit decided to monetize and charge third-party developers that use its API systems which allowed them to develop third-party apps for it for free.
All three third-party applications will be shutting down soon because of the change since they will not be able to afford to keep them running anymore.
According to a Moderator, the protest was about "power in numbers'' in order to draw the attention of Reddit's admins, and the only way to do so was to impair its traffic.
This problem arose as a result of Reddit's decision to monetize and charge third-party developers who used its API services, which allowed them to create third-party apps for free.
Because of the change, all three third-party applications will be going down soon because they will no longer be able to pay to keep them running.
Christian Selig, the developer of ''Apollo for Reddit'' said that to keep the app running it would cost him 20 million dollars. A Reddit representative also told the BBC that Apollo was "notably less efficient'' than other third-party applications. Reddit states that there are no plans in changing its API terms and conditions and will continue with it.
