Reddit Suffers 2-Hour Global Outage During Blackout Day: The Implications Explained

Worldwide Outage Strikes Reddit

Reddit, one of the world’s most popular social news websites, suffered a worldwide outage on Monday, affecting millions of users. According to DownDetector, a website outage tracker, problems began being reported at 10:25 am ET, and the issue persisted for about two hours. During that time, over 7,000 subreddits went private, resulting in the largest user-led online protest recorded anywhere. The move was prompted by the announcement of increased ‘developer fees’ on the website, potentially costing users millions of dollars.

Understanding Reddit

Founded in 2005, Reddit has become famous as a platform for users to explore various topics organized in over 100,000 subreddits. Examples of such subreddits include News, Movies, Funny, IAmA, Pics, and LifeProTips. Users subscribe to these subreddits to get updates on new posts and interact with other members. They can also upvote or downvote posts, with upvotes pushing highly-rated posts upward on the subreddit.

Blackout Day – The Cause of the Outage

Blackout Day was the reason behind the protest that resulted in the outage. It was a movement initiated by Reddit users in response to the announcement that Reddit would be increasing its developer fees starting from July 1st. Developers who utilize the website’s application programming interface (API) for third parties will face significantly higher prices, based on a tiered system that offers additional capabilities and higher usage limits. While Reddit claims that this change is for the long-term benefit of the platform, developers have hit back, noting that it will be destructive to their businesses.

Christian Selig, the developer of Reddit client app Apollo, revealed that the increased fees would cost him as much as $20 million per year, meaning that his app would shut down on June 30th. Other popular apps that connect to Reddit include Reddit is Fun, Sync, and ReddPlanet. Thousands of subreddits, some receiving over 40 million members, switched to private in protest of the change.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman’s Response

On Friday, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman addressed the users’ ‘frustrations’ in a post on the site, explaining how the changes would work. He stated that the new pricing plan would charge $0.24 per 1k API calls for apps requiring higher usage limits, which is less than $1.00 per user per month. Huffman further stated that Reddit needed to be self-sustaining to subsist as a business and could no longer subsidize commercial entities that require large-scale data use. It remains unclear whether the CEO’s statement will affect the course of events.

Implications

The Blackout Day protest highlights the dependence of developers and other third parties on online platforms and the issues they face when the platform changes its pricing plans. Although the protest resulted in the largest-ever user-led online protest, Reddit CEO Huffman has made it clear that the change is necessary for Reddit‘s sustainability. Nevertheless, the protest demonstrates the need for open dialogue between platforms and their third-party developers as they adapt to the changing ecosystem.

Editorial

The Blackout Day protest provides evidence of a growing issue concerning the relationship between online platforms such as Reddit and the third-party developers who depend on them for their businesses. The protest also underscores the fact that developers and users need to be involved in the decision-making process when platforms make significant changes. Platforms must maintain a balance between ensuring their sustainability and supporting innovation and development by their third parties.