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The Reddit Files
Confirmed

Reddit Removes Protesting Moderators After 2023 API Blackout

After Reddit announced paid API access in April 2023, thousands of subreddits went dark starting June 12. Reddit warned it would replace moderators who kept communities closed, then removed several mod teams and took direct control of some subreddits.

Jun 12, 2023
Whose side it served: Neither party

A business dispute between Reddit and its volunteer moderators, not a partisan one.

What the record shows

Reddit announced API charges on April 18, 2023, and the pricing took effect June 30, shutting down third-party apps such as Apollo. More than 7,000 subreddits joined the blackout, and many extended it indefinitely. Reddit removed moderators of r/self, r/TIHI, r/toyota, r/garmin and others in June after protesters marked communities NSFW; spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt said incorrectly marking a community NSFW violates the Moderator Code of Conduct. In July, a Reddit admin account, ModCodeofConduct, took over r/malefashionadvice.

In their words

“incorrectly marking a community as NSFW is a violation of both our Content Policy”— Tim Rathschmidt, Reddit spokesperson, as reported by Ars Technica via Slashdot · source
The other side

Reddit argued moderators had agreed to a Code of Conduct and could not hold communities closed against the wishes of their users. Moderators replied that the removals showed Reddit, not volunteers, holds final control of every community.

Sources

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