Reddit was hit with a major outage on the very first day of a massive sitewide protest against its proposed API changes. Thousands of subreddits went dark as users voiced their opposition to the new API pricing terms, and the resulting blackout caused widespread disruptions to the website.
According to Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt, the significant number of subreddits transitioning to private mode led to the unexpected stability issues. The company immediately went into action to address these problems and restore normalcy. The outage was resolved completely by 1:28 PM ET.
The troubles began early Monday morning, with Reddit’s status page declaring a “major outage” impacting the desktop and mobile sites, as well as the native mobile apps. The company acknowledged the content loading issues and assured users that they were working diligently to resolve them as quickly as possible. Updates provided by Reddit indicated gradual improvements, offering hope that most users would regain access to the platform. The situation was closely monitored throughout the day.
At the peak of the outage, Downdetector received around 43,000 user reports regarding the issues, but the number of reports has since decreased significantly. Additionally, a Twitch stream that was tracking the count of private subreddits appeared to be broken due to the outage, but it has since returned to normal, albeit with a disclaimer explaining the inaccuracy of the count.
The backlash against the API pricing terms has resulted in over 7,000 subreddits going private or read-only. Several of Reddit’s top subreddits, such as r/Music, r/funny, r/aww, and r/todayilearned, boasting millions of followers each, have now joined the cause alongside numerous other communities.
The blackout response has experienced remarkable growth in recent days, triggered by CEO Steve Huffman’s controversial AMA session defending the platform’s new policies. These policies spell doom for beloved third-party apps like RIF and Apollo, which will be forced to shut down permanently.
The new pricing structure is viewed as exorbitant, with Apollo for Reddit creator Christian Selig estimating an annual cost exceeding $20 million to operate the app. Redditors are also concerned about the potential impact on accessibility apps, although Reddit has stated that exceptions will be made for such apps. Notably, RedReader and Dystopia have already received exceptions.
While some subreddits have committed to a 48-hour blackout from June 12th to June 14th, others have chosen to remain private indefinitely until Reddit addresses their concerns. Inquired about any potential changes, Reddit confirmed that it had no plans to alter the announced API pricing
“We’ll continue to be profit-driven until profits arrive,” Huffman said.
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