How Reddit Crushed the Internet's Largest Protest

The Reddit Blackout of 2023 will go down in internet history as one of the largest online protests ever. Outraged redditors coordinated a blackout, with moderators making popular subreddits private in protest, resulting in Reddit being a ghost town.

Why? This business decision by Reddit caused developers to pay over $20,000,000 to get access to their developer APIs which they relied on for access to create valuable Reddit clients, bots, and tools.

In this video, we’ll break down how the Reddit blackout unfolded and why it represents a critical moment for the platform. What exactly is an API, and what makes Reddit's so important? How did the blackout force Reddit to come back for developers? We’ll also discuss the broader implications - does this limit Reddit’s ability to monetize? What does it mean for the future of third-party developers?

The Reddit blackout showed the power of an engaged userbase. When the community revolted, Reddit had to listen but at what cost? This dramatic saga provides key insights into online communities, APIs, and protest in the internet age.

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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
0:45 What is an API?
2:01 The Creation of Apollo (Reddit)
3:32 April 18th 2023 (Large Language Models)
4:09 The Announcement of API Changes
4:47 Apollo Talks to Reddit
5:36 API Requests Explained
6:15 How much is Reddit worth?
6:52 Thanks to Snyk for Sponsoring
8:06 Announcing Apollo Shutdown
8:26 The Slander Begins
9:02 The Actual Call with Reddit
11:36 Analyzing the Call
12:10 Apollo Releases the Source Code
12:59 The Worst Aspect of this Change
13:34 The Post goes VIRAL
14:30 Reddit Responds
14:57 Reddit Declares War
15:29 Subreddits Fight Back
16:32 Blackout Day 1
16:53 Blackout Day 2
17:51 Reddit Saves Face
18:45 Reddit Threatens Mods
20:02 Hackers Get Involved
20:45 The Reddit Files
21:19 The Aftermath
21:52 Apollo Officially Says Goodbye
22:41 What we can learn from this
22:57 Paid API's Moral Dilemma
23:41 Pricing in the age of AI
24:08 Killing 2 Birds with 1 Stone
24:33 When Corporations Runs Socials
24:44 What we can learn from Apollo
26:01 Thank you (SUBSCRIBE)

[CodingWithLewis]

We are BACK everyone! Thanks for being patient :) This video took MONTHS to make. We are so excited to show everyone what we are working on.

[oldbonniegamer]

I think the dumbest move by the Reddit community is giving an end date. A strike doesn't work like that, and you just incentivized the CEO to kick back his feet and wait it out.🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[thatonefoxxy]

The mistake of the protest was globally saying how long it's gonna take.

[mordechaisanders]

What the moderators should do is allow spam.
Not only will it hurt reddit usability, it would render reddit's data unsellable to LLM AI models.

[YaroLord]

Reddit is truly something special. They got me to spend 80 bucks on a raspberry pi and set up a pihole. Adblocking is easy on desktop, but on mobile it's a daunting task. Not anymore. I would rather spend the 80 bucks than give spez a single cent in ad revenue.

[eddebrock]

A protest is never going to work when no one is actually prepared to stop using the service.

[jd_]

thanks to this, i've gone from not using reddit at all to using reddit even less

[mcflurrybutts]

The fact that Google relies on reddit to provide human feedback is insane.

[BWAC]

I never liked the Apollo App, controversial i'm sure. But I'm also on Apollos side that Reddit handled this real bad, they had some of the "smartest" people on the internet and they couldn't crowdsource a solution

[nikplaysgames]

One thing that I wish you mentioned was the reason it was so scary that other moderators chosen by reddit would replace the current moderators if the community doesn't re-open. I won't name names, reddit is notorious for having certain moderators who are extremely corrupt, and work for reddit. The whole point of reddit is that these subreddits are run by the community - if reddit instated their own mods, they would put in these corrupt moderators who work for reddit

Also, I wish you mentioned r/place - that was a big thing reddit did to quell the community's anger. And the f*** spez

Great video overall though, I feel like you summarized this situation super well!

[PatSmashYT]

Reddit didn't crush the protest, the Redditors did it to themselves by giving up so quickly

[mx]

It's not reddits data being taken by AI companies, the data belongs to those made it in the first place, the users.

[Nick-zpwk]

It's hilarious how all reddit had to do was threaten to take away the mods internet power and they all folded like paper.

[QuwapaQuwapus]

I think the biggest problem with the shutdown was that it didn't work. Not only was it very short, and reddit knew they would be back in a couple days, (It would have been better if Reddit didn't know, but i'm not sure how we could have done that), and there were still lots of big subreddits open. for example, r/memes (or r/dank memes, maybe both?) was still up, which was more than enough content for those couple days. Also, I had been using r/sheep to help treat my lamb at the time, as I live in a very rural area and don't have access to vets or medical professionals. I know what people say about using information from reddit, but the r/sheep community was very helpful in helping me identify problems she was having and how to go about treating them. She passed a few days into the subreddits extended protest.

I don't want to say that i blame reddit fully for me loosing my lamb, (as she was very sick and it was only a matter of time before she passed anyway) but I was very very close to her, and at the time I did blame reddit for it at least partially. So my point being, the biggest subreddits that people actually _use_ reddit for stayed open, and the "Q&A" subreddits were the ones that closed. And even then, 90% of the subreddits that _were_ doing it weren't close for long enough for Reddit to be worried.

[CattopyTheWeb]

Fantastic video, Lewis! Great editing. It's really sad that Reddit just slammed the door to their API infront of all the developers using it. If they don't want companies like OpenAI training on that data they could've made API plans. A cheaper API plan for small developers and a more expensive plan for big companies.

R.I.P Apollo and other third party Reddit clients

[frien_d]

has reddit at any point in this ordeal considered making his official app suck less or at least let me use reddit from the browser without nagging?

[georgesmith]

Did you expect a company to have ethics when in the end it is a for-profit organization? No can do. And those egos .... ah, I am CEO, how dare you ask for a good deal!? It will be what I tell you. Let this be a lesson for every developer. Before you start creating valuable apps, strike a deal with the provider. This way at least you got yourself covered for a period of 5 or whatever number of years you got them to sign for. It is much easier for them to say yes when your idea is just an idea and there isn't much money pouring into your pockets. So, lawyer up in advance. That's the language they understand when push comes to shove.

[Aaron.Seabolt]

RIP Apollo and all of the other third party Reddit apps. Screw you Spez. Great video Lewis.

[samuelmontypython]

Shame about Apollo. I would have gladly paid a subscription fee to keep using it and keep the community alive. The official Reddit app is archaic and practically unusable compared to Apollo's UI/UX.

[wardrich]

Reddit didn't really crush anything. The mods were pathetic in their threats, and the admins basically tried to scan the mods of the subreddits that were protesting properly.

Really though, it comes as no surprise. The site's admins seem to have been trying really hard over the past 5+ years to kill itself off with horrible redesigns, a garbage app, and banning good communities while allowing the dangerous ones to thrive.