Reddit users are dissatisfied with a number of fees that Reddit imposed for its application programming interface, which enables users to view Reddit content on outside applications like Apollo.
According to The Verge, many of these applications have announced that they would shut down due to the fees.
On June 2, a member going by the handle u/Toptomcat wrote in a post that many subreddits “will be going dark to protest this policy.”
“Some will return after 48 hours: others will go away permanently unless the issue is adequately addressed, since many moderators aren’t able to put in the work they do with the poor tools available through the official app,” u/Toptomcat added.
CEO Steve Huffman wrote a Reddit article on Friday about the “frustration” the community was feeling as a result of the changes, adding that he had discussed it with a number of moderators.
“We respect when you and your communities take action to highlight the things you need, including, at times, going private. We are all responsible for ensuring Reddit provides an open accessible place for people to find community and belonging.” he added.
Reddit data is used by large tech companies like Google and Microsoft to train their AI algorithms. Reddit didn’t want to give out all of its “valuable” data for free, according to Huffman, who told The New York Times that this was the reason for the decision to charge for using the API.
Apollo, a third-party app, has previously announced that it would be discontinued on June 30. In a Reddit post, its creator, Christian Selig, claimed that the site is demanding payment of $0.24 for each 1,000 calls made to its API.