Greetings everyone!

tl;dr: this subreddit will be participating in the reddit protest for 48 hours from 12th June as a result of the upcoming API changes by going private.

As many of you are already aware, reddit has announced significant upcoming changes to their API that will have a serious impact to many users. There is currently a planned protest across hundreds of subreddits to black out on June 12th for 48 hours. We polled this subreddit earlier in the week, and you were overwhelmingly in favour of action.

More Information:

For a great infographic explaining these changes, see here: https://i.redd.it/zqptto18e34b1.jpg

• Third Party reddit apps (such as Apollo, Reddit is Fun and others) have been told that they will be charged for accessing the API. Put simply, each request to reddit within these mobile apps will cost the developer money. No one is against paying a fair amount, but the amount quoted is comparable to what Twitter charges (which has been ridiculed by many for being extortionate). The developer of Apollo was quoted around $2 million per month for the current rate of usage and given 30 days notice of this change, which was too little notice to implement anything before incurring significant costs that they would be unlikely to recoup from users. Sadly, Apollo and RIF and others have announced they will be closing on 30/06/2023 as a result of this change. It is likely that other apps will follow. If they do remain open you will have to pay a monthly fee to cover your API usage.

• Many users with visual impairments rely on 3rd-party applications in order to more easily interface with reddit, as the official reddit mobile app does not have robust support for visually-impaired users. This means that a great deal of visually-impaired redditors will no longer be able to access the site in the assisted fashion they’re used to.

• NSFW Content is no longer going to be available in the API. This means that, even if 3rd party apps continue to survive, or even if you pay a fee to use a 3rd party app, you will not be able to access NSFW content on it. You will only be able to access it on the official reddit app. Additionally, some service bots (such as video downloaders or maybe remindme bots) will not be able to access anything NSFW. In more major cases, it may become harder for moderators of NSFW subreddits to combat serious violations such as CSAM due to certain mod tools being restricted from accessing NSFW content.

Open Letter to Reddit & Blackout

In light of what’s happening above, an open letter has been released by the broader moderation community, and /r/unitedkingdom will be supporting it by going private for 48 hours starting on Monday 12th June.

Thank you to the /r/unitedkingdom community for your support.

Cheers,

/r/unitedkingdom Mod Team