Reddit, the popular social news and discussion website, has recently introduced a policy change that significantly impacts the ability of subreddit moderators to organize large-scale protests. The new rule requires moderators to obtain admin approval before switching a subreddit from public to private status, a tactic commonly used in past protests.
This change comes after last year’s massive protest against Reddit’s API pricing changes, which saw over 8,000 subreddits go private simultaneously. The protest caused substantial disruption to the site’s daily traffic and functionality, leading to a major outage.
Laura Nestler, Reddit’s VP of Community, justified the decision by stating that the ability to change community settings instantly has been used to “break the platform and violate our rules.” The company framed the issue as maintaining consistency and honoring user expectations for public and private communities.
Critics view this move as an attempt to curb future protests, as it gives Reddit administrators direct control over a key protest mechanism. The policy change also extends to labeling subreddits as NSFW, another protest tactic that impacts advertising and searchability.
This development follows Reddit’s controversial API pricing changes, which led to the shutdown of popular third-party apps like Apollo. It also comes amid news of Reddit’s lucrative deal to license its user-generated content for AI model training, reportedly worth $60 million annually, with no compensation planned for the content creators themselves.
The new policy effectively makes it nearly impossible for moderators to organize large-scale, coordinated protests on the platform, marking a significant shift in the balance of power between Reddit’s administration and its community moderators.
