2023-07-08 19:00:12
A bunch of disgruntled internet users couldn’t block Instagram or TikTok. That’s what happens to Reddit though. ADRIÀ FRUITOS
Leaving social networks, but to go where? A few years ago, Bifidus (it’s a nickname) took the plunge. She deleted her Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts. She was tired of platforms designed to show her targeted content on repeat.
At the same time, she took to Reddit. Less known in France than the other American web giants, this site is an aggregator of forums (called subreddits), each devoted to a particular subject or concept: gardening, independent video games, the reality show Selling Sunsetthe aesthetics of the 1990s… “What I immediately appreciated on Reddit was that I discovered things there that I wasn’t looking for. I no longer had the feeling of being locked up.” Explain Bifidus. “Well, that was the case before the events. »
Reddit is often described as the last bastion of the web community, centered around its users rather than promoting viral content. Recently, this utopia has cracked. The site faced a massive strike by its moderators and moderators, the volunteers who ensure the proper functioning of the various subreddits, the culmination of a crisis that has simmered for several months.
Read also: At Reddit, years of debate on the line to be held between freedom of expression and moderation
Strike and France Gall
It all started in April, when Reddit announced that it would charge for access to its API (application programming interface), which allowed anyone to develop a service using data from the platform. . The American company, which is not profitable and which is preparing to go public, targeted artificial intelligence companies (like OpenAI) which abused its API to train their models.
However, this decision also affected another category of services, developed by and for the community: other applications allowing the site to be consulted (often without advertisements or algorithmic recommendations, as on the official application) or facilitating its use for people disabilities, with tools for moderators, fun bots, and more. The company promised to create a few exceptions, but was adamant about alternative customers, some very popular, who were forced to close because of the cost involved.
On June 12, more than 8,000 subreddits were made inaccessible to the general public, in protest against Reddit’s plans. Some reopened after forty-eight hours, the initial duration planned for the strike. Others continued their virtual demonstration by showing an absurd humor typical of Reddit, with the intention of making their community unusable: r/france, the main French subreddit, thus devoted itself exclusively, for a few days, to singer France Gall.
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