Popular subreddits welcomed NSFW content to protest Reddit changes

It's Thursday, June 22, 2023.

The battle over Reddit’s API changes continues, even after coming into effect. Reddit's decision to charge for access to its API was supposedly aimed at companies scraping the website to train Large Language Models for generative AI, but the decision also affects thousands of third-party clients and apps that tie into the platform, including ones with powerful moderation tools not available on the main site and app. Thousands of communities protested the move by setting their subreddits private and making them inaccessible.

Following the API changes, several popular subreddits that historically prohibited porn have started allowing users to post NSFW – Not Safe For Work – content. These communities include r/mildlyinteresting and r/videos. In r/TIHI’s (Thanks, I Hate It) case, a stickied post says the subreddit is removing a rule that forbids extreme NSFW content and will now welcome it, as long as it’s legal under US law. By allowing their subreddits to be filled with posts deemed not safe for work, the moderators have made sure Reddit can't monetize them. The site’s response to the situation has been swift – administrators have reportedly removed whole moderating teams for communities that labeled themselves NSFW.

So far, these protests have had little effect on Reddit CEO Steve Huffman. He told NPR: "It's a small group that's very upset, and there's no way around that. We made a business decision that upset them."

– Mat Smith

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