After adopting different forms of protest like exclusively posting John Oliver pictures or changing the topic of the subreddit, moderators have rebelled against the company by marking their subreddits NSFW (Not Safe For Work).
Protesting API changes made by Reddit, moderators are making their subreddits NSFW and loosening the rules about what users can post. In April 2019, the social network changed its policy to disallow ads on NSFW subreddits. So protesting communities are changing their status to try and affect the company’s ad revenue and get them to listen to their demands.
However, Reddit is stepping in with some of these subreddits and removing moderators. It is also threatening them with punitive action and asking them to remove the NSFW label. As noted in a report by The Verge, r/formula1, r/HomeKit, and r/HomePod had turned the NSFW label on earlier this week, but the admins asked moderators to switch them back to SFW communities.
Earlier this week, some large communities like r/interstingasfuck, r/midlyinteresting, and r/TIHI (Thanks I hate it) enabled NSFW. Reddit briefly removed r/midlyinteresting moderators but reinstated them later when the community switched back to SFW. The other two communities are currently archived as moderators were removed.
Apart from this, other communities such as r/illegallifeprotips, r/self, and r/shittylifeprotips also remain in archived status.
The admin account that Reddit uses to talk with moderators, u/ModCodeofConduct, said Wednesday that communities can’t suddenly change their status.
“Changing a previously SFW community to an NSFW community in order to protest Reddit policies is inappropriate for the members of your community and not acceptable overall. People subscribe to communities based on the content at the time of subscription. Communities can gradually change as they grow, but this is not what we are observing and not in the best interest of the users being subjected to that content,” it posted.
Despite this, some subreddits like r/birthcontrol, r/perfectlycutscreams, r/gameofthrones, and r/applehelp still remain NSFW.
While thousands of communities went dark earlier this month, over 2,700 subreddits are still private or restricted, according to a tracker.
In a recent wave of interviews, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman staunchly defended the company’s decision about API changes and said that the protests didn’t affect the platform’s revenue much. Earlier this week, hackers threatened Reddit to release 80GB of confidential data unless the company pays them and reverses API rules.
If you are a subreddit moderator or Reddit employee who wants to talk about the ongoing situation, you can contact the reporter at [email protected].
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