In an email to its employees, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman addressed the recent blowback directed at the company. He warned his employees against wearing Reddit gear in public. He also asked his staffers to block out the ‘noise’ and ‘keep moving forward’.
In an internal memo, obtained by The Verge, Mr Huffman said that the company had not “seen any significant revenue impact” from the blackout and that “like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well.”
Reddit users are currently protesting the company’s API pricing for third-party apps. Thousands of subreddits have gone dark on the app to mark their protest against the new pricing policy, resulting in millions of users being unable to see posts from their favourite community.
He asked his employees to “please be mindful of wearing Reddit gear in public”. He wrote, “Some folks are really upset, and we don’t want you to be the object of their frustrations.” Several developers have expressed concerns about the viability of their services under the new pricing policy.
In a post announcing the protest, the subreddits say ”Reddit is raising its API fees ”to a level that will kill every third party app , from Apollo to Reddit is Fun to Narwhal to BaconReader.
Unlike other social media sites, Reddit relies on community moderation and although a few administrators are paid, unpaid moderators, known as mods, are often the ones who keep the site functional. These moderators make sure that their subreddit doesn’t get clogged with irrelevant or illegal comments.
