The Reddit blackout
Seven thousand communities switching themselves off to prove who was actually running them.
You might remember it as subreddits going dark, 2023 Reddit API protest
It happened on television
This Moment happened away from the internet before anybody put it online.
- SourceNot an upload originally
- MediaNot held by ViralWorld
What this was
Reddit announced on 18 April 2023 that it would start charging for an API that had been free since 2008, which killed the third-party apps people used — including the ones blind users depended on. More than seven thousand subreddits went private, most of them on 12 to 14 June. It was the clearest demonstration yet that a platform's content is made by unpaid volunteers who can stop.
It first appeared in 2023, during short-form and streams.
Short-form and streams
- The GameStop short squeeze 2021Short-form and streams
- FoodTok 2021Short-form and streams
- Noodle 2021Short-form and streams
- Doggface208 Dreams video 2020Short-form and streams
- Hawk Tuah 2024Short-form and streams
- Moo Deng 2024Short-form and streams
- Sigma Boy 2024Short-form and streams
- AI slop 2024Short-form and streams
- Grimace Shake 2023Short-form and streams
- Skibidi Toilet 2023Short-form and streams
Related
Nothing related yet. Relationships are recorded where evidence supports them, not inferred from similarity.
Behind the recordWhere it came from
There is no original upload to identify: this Moment did not begin as one. ViralWorld holds no copy of it either — what it was, when it appeared and what people called it is the record.
Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This Moment happened away from the internet before anybody put it online.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
- What happens
- Reddit announced on 18 April 2023 that it would start charging for an API that had been free since 2008, which killed the third-party apps people used — including the ones blind users depended on. More than seven thousand subreddits went private, most of them on 12 to 14 June. It was the clearest demonstration yet that a platform's content is made by unpaid volunteers who can stop.