Major electronic dance music forums on Reddit have joined a coordinated blackout in regards to recent policy changes on the platform.
Reddit recently announced its plan to assess a controversial fee structure to third party developers leveraging the platform’s API, which has since drawn sweeping backlash from users and developers alike.
Over 3,500 subreddits are privatizing their access for a temporary blackout period, meaning they will be inaccessible to the general public, the BBC reports. And major EDM subreddits collectively boasting millions of subscribing readers are showing solidarity with the movement.
Presently, a visit to r/EDM yields the following message: “This subreddit is closed in protest of Reddit killing third party apps.” Other popular dance music-related forums, including r/aves and r/edmproduction, have joined the effort, which is expected to last at least 48 hours.
The moderators of r/aves updated their subreddit with a message saying it “has been set to private in order to protest reddit taking actions that make it harder for moderators do their job in the name of reducing the quality of their site for increased profits.” They also encouraged followers to join their Discord server.
For smaller developers in particular, the policy is a threat to the financial liability of their businesses. One popular Reddit browsing application in particular, Apollo, has already publicly stated that the changes will force them to discontinue service after June 30th.
In total, nearly 38% of all authored comments—roughly 5.7 billion—on the website will reportedly be impacted.