The Reddit blackout
You might remember it as subreddits going dark, 2023 Reddit API protest
The archive has not found a surviving copy.
Seven thousand communities switching themselves off to prove who was actually running them.
At a glanceThe facts
- Remembered as
- subreddits going dark
- Spread in
- 2023
- Began as
- Something that happened offline
- Format
- Event
- Where it started
- Who or what it shows
- Christian Selig, developer of the Apollo app, who said he had been quoted twenty million dollars a year
- Origin
- Not an upload originally
- Available
- Not held by ViralWorld
What this wasThe story
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.
Why it matteredWhat changed
More than seven thousand communities shut themselves for two days or longer to protest a charge that closed third-party apps. The company warned moderators that they could be replaced, and took over one subreddit that stayed shut.
TimelineIn order
- Made
Reddit announces it will charge for access to its data, which had been free.1
- Took off
The developer of Apollo publishes the price he has been quoted.1
- Took off
Thousands of subreddits go private or stop accepting posts. The protest is planned to last forty-eight hours, and many extend it.1 What else happened on 12 June
- Taken down
Apollo and three other apps shut down.1
- Later
Reddit takes over a subreddit that is still protesting.1
Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · a moment that changed what the internet did next · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later
This happened away from the internet before anybody put it online.
Where it came fromWhat we know
There is no original upload to identify: this did not begin as one. There is no copy of it here either — what it was, when it appeared and what people called it is what this page can tell you.
Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This happened away from the internet before anybody put it online.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
ConnectedFollow it further
- Referred to by r/placePhenomenon · 2017
In 2023 users wrote an insult to Reddit’s chief executive across the canvas, in protest at the API charges.
SourcesWhat was read
Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things