In a leaked memo obtained by The Verge, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman addressed the recent outage of thousands of subreddits and instructed employees to stay focused on their commitments despite the backlash. The blackout was a result of the company raising API pricing for third-party apps, potentially costing millions of dollars annually for some Reddit clients. Huffman assured employees that the revenue impact has not been significant and that many subreddits will be back online soon. He cautioned against potential backlash and advised employees against wearing Reddit-branded attire in public.
The Background
Reddit announced in April its intention to monetize the usage of Reddit data for training artificial intelligence tools. However, the company failed to take into account the adverse effect on third-party app developers. Apps such as Apollo for Reddit and rif is fun for Reddit have announced their impending shutdown on June 30th, a day before Reddit’s new pricing structure takes effect. The community outcry has resulted in thousands of subreddits going offline.
The Response
The leaked memo expressed the tumultuous situation Reddit is facing and acknowledged the frustration users feel towards the API pricing changes. Huffman assured staff that their teams are actively addressing the issues and emphasized the importance of adhering to their commitments, enhancing their product, and successfully launching critical mod tools in the near future. Huffman remains confident that this too shall pass, like previous controversies. He acknowledged the challenges but appreciates the team’s dedication and involvement in adapting to infrastructure strains, engaging with communities, and responding to the issues related to the blackout.
The Internal Advice
Huffman advised employees to disregard the criticism and cautioned them against wearing Reddit-branded attire in public, given the intense frustration users feel towards the API pricing changes. Huffman aims to protect staff from becoming targets of such frustration. Huffman’s intention is for the company to successfully navigate the crisis while keeping employees motivated and engaged in their work, focused on their commitments, and confident in their success.
Read the full memo below:
Hi Snoos,
Starting last night, about a thousand subreddits have gone private. We do anticipate many of them will come back by Wednesday, as many have said as much. While we knew this was coming, it is a challenge nevertheless and we have our work cut out for us. A number of Snoos have been working around the clock, adapting to infrastructure strains, engaging with communities, and responding to the myriad of issues related to this blackout. Thank you, team.
We have not seen any significant revenue impact so far and we will continue to monitor.
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. The most important things we can do right now are stay focused, adapt to challenges, and keep moving forward. We absolutely must ship what we said we would. The only long term solution is improving our product, and in the short term we have a few upcoming critical mod tool launches we need to nail.
While the two biggest third-party apps, Apollo and RIF, along with a couple others, have said they plan to shut down at the end of the month, we are still in conversation with some of the others. And as I mentioned in my post last week, we will exempt accessibility-focused apps and so far have agreements with RedReader and Dystopia.
I am sorry to say this, but please be mindful of wearing Reddit gear in public. Some folks are really upset, and we don’t want you to be the object of their frustrations.
Again, we’ll get through it. Thank you to all of you for helping us do so.