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Reddit mods are organizing blackouts to protest against API changes (www.reddit.com)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Some of the planned blackouts will be temporary, others plan to shut their subreddits down indefinitely in protest.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah, the strategy makes sense, I wish them well, I'm not just optimistic about the results.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago

Neither am I. I think they are going about it the right way. I just think Reddit is intent on Digg-ing themselves a grave and I don't even think they understand the consequences of their actions. I'm sure they did some math on losing 3rd party app users, but I think they severely miscalculated on the moderator and accessibility fronts.

In the U.S., Section 504 requires web services to provide "individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to participate." For now, Reddit has complied with that because third party applications using the free API constitute an equal opportunity (actually, it's a better opportunity - even better). However Reddit's website and first-party application do not work with screen readers. If Reddit goes through with this, I fully expect them to be sued. I wouldn't be too surprised if they weren't even aware of this, because the relevant communities have quietly used third-party access since ever.