What happened
Beginning June 12, 2023, more than 8,000 subreddits, including some of the platform's largest communities such as r/funny, r/aww, r/gaming, r/Music and r/science, went private or restricted posting in a coordinated protest against Reddit's new API pricing. Organized by moderators and backed by millions of users, the blackout was initially planned to last 48 hours but many communities extended their protests indefinitely. The action caused widespread disruption and contributed to a major site outage on the first day.
Protesters demanded that Reddit reconsider fees that were driving popular third-party apps like Apollo out of business and harming accessibility tools and moderation bots that relied on free API access. CEO Steve Huffman dismissed the protest in internal messaging and a contentious interview, comparing moderators unfavorably to a 'landed gentry' and signaling that Reddit would not back down. As the standoff dragged on, Reddit pressured holdout communities to reopen, threatening to remove moderators who kept subreddits dark, which deepened the rift between the company and its volunteer workforce.