Reddit's new policy makes sitewide protests nearly impossible

Reddit has implemented a major policy change requiring moderators to obtain admin approval before switching a subreddit from public to private, as reported by The Verge.

This move is widely seen as an attempt to prevent large-scale protests on the platform, such as those that occurred last year in response to API pricing changes.

Previously, over 8,000 subreddits went private simultaneously in protest, significantly impacting Reddit’s daily traffic and allegedly causing a sitewide outage. Reddit blamed the protests for these disruptions. Now, with this policy, any such coordinated action will need approval from Reddit staff, effectively giving the company control over whether multiple subreddits can go private.

Additionally, Reddit has also restricted moderators from switching subreddits to "Not Safe For Work" (NSFW) as a form of protest, which previously removed ad revenue from those subreddits. Admin approval is now required for this change as well.

Reddit’s recent success in securing a $60 million annual deal by licensing user-generated content to train AI models has added to the frustration among users. While the company profits, the content creators themselves receive no financial compensation for their contributions.