API fee protests caused Reddit to crash for 3 hours – the internet

More than 7,000 subreddits It was made privately To “opt-out” and resist the overcharge of using the controversial API, which has caused some instability on the site. Specifically, Reddit has been down since 10:25 am. Until 1:26 pm yesterday.

In the midst of the outage, Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt said the edge:

A large number of private subreddits is causing some expected stability issues and we are working on a fix.

As of last night, 7,856 subreddits had joined the protest, according to Twitch, and 8,191 said they would take similar action. Some of the subreddits that will be made private have tens of millions of subscribers. But with the lockdown, the protests have already affected users who are not using one of the sub-forums to protest.

During the outage, the Reddit website displayed a main feed with the note: “Something went wrong. Just don’t panic” and a popup saying: “Sorry, we were unable to load posts for this page.” TechCrunch reported that users weren’t able to see threads in the Reddit app either.

Thousands of subreddits united in going private or granting read-only access from June 12 to June 14 to “rebel” against Reddit’s charges of accessing its API, which was previously free to use. Additionally, several administrators of subreddits that have been made private have reported that they will continue to restrict access to their content for a longer period of time. Some believe the changes announced in April are a deliberate move to shut down third-party apps that give access to Reddit, a situation similar to how Twitter effectively ended having third-party apps access its service after the February API price increase.

The Apollo app for iSOS, which sparked controversy when it said the new pricing system would require paying $20 million annually to keep operating, said it will shut down on June 30. Apollo is the most popular mobile app for accessing Reddit, and it’s not the only one preparing for its imminent end.

And while the three-hour shutdown may seem like a victory for those protesting, Reddit has yet to show signs of abating.

in “intense “AMA Last Friday before the protests, Reddit CEO Steve Hoffman was adamant about pricing, saying in his original post that “Reddit must be a self-sustaining business, and in order to do so, we can no longer support commercial entities that require a large number of data usage.” Widely. ”

We will continue to speculate until profits come in. Unlike some third-party apps, we’re not profitable,” Hoffman said when asked about concerns that “Reddit is becoming more and more profitable and less focused on community engagement.” ”

Reddit gives a free license to apps that “meet accessibility needs,” Rathschmidt told The Verge last week, and some, like RedReader and Dystopia, have confirmed they’ve been granted waivers.
But then Reddit insisted it should be “fairly paid” for supporting third-party apps through its API. The company appears to be scrambling for financing, which included layoffs and a hiring freeze last week. Reddit has filed for an IPO in late 2021, which is expected to happen this year.

Reddit has denied that it’s trying to shut down third-party apps, but suspicions remain, especially given its pricing system. Reddit will cost $0.24 per 1,000 requests, or $12,000 for 50 million. For comparison, Imgur charges $500 per month for 7.5 million requests per month or $10,000 per month for 150 million requests per month, and Twitter charges $42,000 for 50 million tweets.