Here's Why Much of Reddit Is Shutting Down

By Adam Barnhardt

In the coming hours, you may notice your favorite message boards have gone offline. As a part of a site-wide blackout, Reddit users are choosing to boycott the site in protest of some changes it's recently made. At the root of the controversy is the site's price hike regarding API calls, or connections between the social network and third-party applications. What once cost developers just a few dollars for 50 million API calls has now ballooned to a staggering $12,000 for the same amount.

Because of the price increase, some applications developed to ease site use are being forced to close their doors. As such, most subreddits are choosing to go through a self-imposed blackout this week where new posts will not be allowed. For Monday and Tuesday, thousands of subreddits will not be allowing new posts in hopes of shuttering traffic to the website.

Still, Reddit founder and CEO Steve Huffman says the change was made to avoid giving user data to large corporations "for free." Instead, the executive says, Reddit should be able to charge money in exchange for the data.

"The Reddit corpus of data is really valuable," Huffman said in a recent chat with the New York Times. "But we don't need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free."

What are API calls?

For the uninitiated, API stands for Application Programming Interface. Virtually all social media-type websites develop an API so that outside developers can build programs and applications based on the social technology. An API call takes place when the third-party app or site requests data from the social network.

One API "call" amounts to one server request, meaning if millions of people are using a given app or website, there are an absurd amount of API calls on any given day.

What subreddits are shutting down in protest?

In protest to the policy, a new report from the BBC suggests at least 3,500 subreddits have publicly said they're shutting down on Monday and Tuesday. Though one of the largest communities on Reddit, the moderators at r/AskReddit revealed they'd stay "live" during the blackout despite ongoing criticisms of the decision.

"We've always done our best to be a neutral mod team because this subreddit is about letting the community discuss topics and at this moment in time, the community speaks louder than mods do," the moderators' statement reads. "The mods here individually have our own opinions on the Reddit API controversy but as mods of a community dedicated to conversations, we think it's more impactful to keep the subreddit open so people can discuss this controversial change and the surrounding impacts."

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