In a recent memo to staff, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman addressed the issue of thousands of subreddits going private, in a protest against the company. These moves to go offline started yesterday, and while the company was prepared, the situation poses challenges for the company still, said the CEO.
Huffman gave assurance to employees that they anticipate many of the offline subreddits to return by Wednesday, according to a memo obtained by The Verge.
He wrote: “A number of Snoos (Reddit employees) have been working tirelessly, adapting to infrastructure strains, engaging with communities, and responding to the myriad of issues related to this blackout. Thank you, team.”
Despite the turmoil, Huffman confirmed that there has been no significant impact on revenue thus far. However, the company will continue to monitor the situation.
He further noted: “There’s a lot of noise with this one. Among the noisiest we’ve seen. Please know that our teams are on it, and like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well.”
Huffman urged his team to stay focused, adaptable and to keep making progress. He stressed the importance of improving the platform’s product as a long-term solution and emphasized the need to successfully launch upcoming critical mod tool updates.
The CEO also mentioned ongoing discussions with third-party app developers after the two biggest third-party apps, Apollo and RIF, announced they plan to shut down at the end of the month. He reassured that accessibility-focused apps, such as RedReader and Dystopia, will be exempt from any actions.
In a surprising turn of caution, Huffman requested his staff to be mindful about wearing Reddit-branded clothing in public due to the current backlash, as some people are quite upset about the blackout.
Huffman ended his memo on an optimistic note, thanking the team for their hard work and reassuring them, saying, “Again, we’ll get through it.”
The backlash was due to Reddit’s API pricing change that caused numerous third-party apps to cease to exist, including the likes of Apollo. According to the Reddark website, nearly 8,500 subreddits have turned “private” as of writing, in support of third-party developers affected by the API change. By going private, these subreddits are no longer open to the public.
