Reddit Communities Adopt Alternative Forms of Protest as Company Threatens Action on Moderators

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Photo credit: TechCrunch

Several subreddits use alternative protest methods, e.g. For example, publishing only one type of post, changing the topic focus, and days when the community goes private.

Many of these communities participated in the June 12-14 Reddit blackout to mobilize against Reddit’s API rule changes that could bring many third-party apps to a virtual standstill. When the company — and its CEO Steve Huffman — decided not to make any changes, subreddits began considering indefinitely ceasing operations.

However, Reddit pointed out that moderators must keep the community open. Also, without a public vote, they cannot decide that their community should be blacked out. The company even sent messages to the moderators saying they would be removed if they all continued to participate in the blackout.

To bypass the moderator removal action, several communities conduct polls to decide what type of posts are allowed in the subreddit. They are also relaxing some rules – due to the changes, moderators will not have certain tools, making their job more difficult.

Some of the biggest communities like r/pics, r/aww and r/GIF have decided to publish John Oliver pictures and GIFs. In a tweet, Oliver agreed with this move.

In the case of r/aww, the community is also allowed to post pictures of Chiijohn. r/iPhone has decided to release images celebrating the “dashing” Tim Cook.

There are also some really bizarre forms of protest:

While these methods are innovative and fun, we’ll have to see if Reddit management shows a tendency to back down. In recent interviews, Huffman has vehemently defended the company’s changes to its API rules, saying it wants to be profitable. He also pointed out that these protests were led by a “small group who are very upset” and had no impact on the company’s revenue. Through these public votes, communities try to prove that a large number of people are unhappy with the changes Reddit is making.

If you are a subreddit moderator or Reddit contributor and would like to speak about the current situation, you can contact the reporter at [email protected].