Reddit, the forum-social media website, has continued to suffer from a power struggle between unpaid moderators and corporate leadership, PC Mag reports. The change in Reddit policies is traced back to the rumor of the company going public.
The Reddit protest started due to the new Application Programming Interface policy. API connections are necessary for third-party applications to interface with the base service. While API connections were previously free, their new high fees render most bots and tools no longer viable.
The first attempt moderators used to protest Reddit was in the form of putting their communities as “private.” In response, Reddit removed moderators who refused to reopen. Instead, remaining moderators have been marking posts incorrectly as Adult content to prevent Reddit from receiving ad revenue.
This tension brings forth questions of who owns content online, the creators or the websites themselves. Reddit leadership has promised to crack down on attempts to evade rules, labeling the recalcitrants “landed gentry”, awash with privilege and attempting to usurp power from the users.
How Reddit evolves will also impact other social media sites like Twitter. Musk had previously disabled 3rd party API connections, attempting to make Twitter more profitable by keeping outside development curtailed. The role of monetization, subscriptions, and non-corporate labor are all evolving in new business configurations.
