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Numerous sub-communities on Reddit, including the popular cryptocurrency subreddits, have unanimously decided to go private for 48 hours to protest the company’s new policy banning third-party apps.
In April, Reddit announced plans to change the way users interact with the Reddit Data API, a seven-year-old application that allows developers to create tools and utilities for moderation and other activities.
Most subreddits have reacted to this move as Reddit’s intent to create their own moderation tools has a direct impact on the community’s ability to create and use third-party tools that are primarily used to moderate content and interactions. As a result, from June 12 to June 14, communities decided to go to private or read-only mode, protesting the upcoming change.
The list includes the main crypto communities that have helped millions of investors around the world discuss various aspects of the ecosystem.
Some of the popular subreddits dedicated to discussing Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies that are protesting the change include r/Bitcoin, r/CryptoCurrency/ and r/cardano. Reddit has also received backlash for introducing paid access to its data API.
While it is estimated that almost 3,500 subreddits have become inaccessible, the number could increase if other communities join the uprising. On the other hand, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman backed the social media platform’s decision, stating the need to be a “self-sustaining business.” He said:
“We respect when you and your communities take action to highlight what you need, including, sometimes, privacy.”
In addition, to root out the widespread use of third-party moderation tools, Reddit plans to launch mobile moderation tools for the Reddit iOS and Android apps in the coming months.
Related: EU oversees cryptocurrency ads on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter
Despite ongoing community crackdown, Reddit is close to reaching a new milestone in terms of collectible avatar holders on the platform.
Reddit managed to collect 10 million owners of their collectible avatars in just a year after the launch of the “Reddit NFT”.
The Reddit collectible avatar marketplace launched on the Ethereum Polygon scaling network in July 2022, allowing independent artists and Redditors to create custom NFT collections.