Reddit Moderators Face Threats as Protests Wear on

After more than two weeks, a Reddit community protest shows no signs of slowing down. However, Reddit is fed up and is now taking action. The platform has sent notices to moderators of subreddits that went private in protest of new charges for third-party developers, threatening to remove them from their roles unless they reopen their subs. While most of the 8,000 subreddits that participated in the protest have reopened, 2,292 communities are holding out, according to Quartz. These communities are comprised of millions of members who claim that Reddit has not adequately addressed their concerns.

Reddit’s decision to charge for API access, following in the footsteps of Twitter, has attracted criticism. Developers have described the prices as “sky-high,” with one developer claiming that Reddit will charge $12,000 for every 50 million requests. A request includes actions such as posting, commenting, and upvoting. Apollo, a popular third-party app, says it makes 7 billion requests per month, which equates to $20 million per year under the new pricing structure. Users are urging Reddit to reverse the changes or provide more time for apps to comply. However, Reddit argues that converting subreddits to private violates the Moderator Code of Conduct.

The Verge reports that protesting moderators have received a standard message warning them that they will lose their moderator status if they continue the protest. In response, some moderators have reopened their subs, but have modified their rules to keep the protest alive. For example, the moderators of r/firefox, a subreddit dedicated to the Mozilla web browser, have limited new submissions to topics related to red pandas, or “fire foxes.” Similarly, users have voted to focus all posts on popular subreddits r/pics, r/gifs, r/aww, and r/videos on Last Week Tonight host John Oliver. This creative approach ensures that the protest remains visible. (Read more Reddit stories.)