New accessibility tools are being announced by the site

The Magic of Reddit is Coming: Don’t Give Up! Removing the Magic of Social Discourse with Advance Publications, and How Artificial Intelligence Can Save It

It’s the kind of shake-up that makes users realize how much they give to technology companies for free even if they just mean to give it to the community. A poster on one subreddit dedicated to saving the third-party apps broke it down succinctly: “Never forget how Reddit began as an empty website, which its founders populated with hundreds of fake accounts to give the illusion of activity and popularity—Remember that without us, the users, Reddit would be nothing Hoffmans digital dollhouse. It’sDisclosure: Condé Nast has a publication called WIRED. Advance Publications, Condé Nast’s parent company, holds an ownership stake in Reddit.)

Reddit answered the protest with a warning: If they kept their private communities out of the public eye, they’d lose their mod status. A site that tracks boycotts says that more than a quarter of the site’s subreddits are dark.

One of the main reasons for the change was that companies would have to pay up, according to Steve Huffman, the company’s CEO. “The Reddit corpus of data is really valuable,” Huffman said. Some of the biggest companies in the world don’t need all of that value.

Maybe it was not an active fear that everyone knew was coming but still, it was still a foregone conclusion: The magic of Reddit is gone. As of today, June 30, 2023, several mobile apps for browsing the platform are closing up shop ahead of a new initiative from Reddit to charge for access to its API. It’s the culmination of weeks of revolt from users and mods upset that the move will price out the third-party developers responsible for the apps that help make the community what it is. Even if the decision is rolled back, it has changed the culture of the site forever. And made the internet work with it.

If all of this sounds like a lot of fretting over something as wonky as an API change, it’s not. It’s indicative of a growing new awareness of what constitutes labor on the internet, and how communities can have their work mined for money-making ventures. Specifically, ones powered by artificial intelligence.

Carver said that they are being asked to do something that would be done by someone else. “It’s not the community’s responsibility to make things accessible. It’s not a well-intentioned developer’s responsibility to do that. That is Reddit’s responsibility.”

When the r/blind subreddit began a strike, the moderators needed the assistance of a blind person to turn the forum into a private one.

Reddit, NPR, and the Accessibility of the Apps: The Case for a Non-Standard Online Community

“These three apps are perfectly adequate if you’re just a reader of Reddit,” Carver said. None of the people we need to moderate a community have the full capability that we need.

Carver said that the update were not up to par and that the meeting left them with a lot of concerns.

When NPR reached out to Reddit for comment, a spokesperson for the company pointed to the “Accessibility,” section on its blog page explaining the API changes; the section notes what the company says it’s doing to improve accessibility, including its partnership with developers of three apps that address accessibility needs.

We would like a top-down corporate response that gives the product time enough time and addresses the broader community’s concerns, as we applaud Reddit for prioritizing these features.

“They have created their own problem,” said Noah Carver, a moderator for r/blind. Developers have to get an accessibility fix for moderation done and disabled users will not be able to use the most accessible client that is most accessible to them.

mods are volunteers who help with keeping the online communities running smoothly and ensuring their forum users stick to the rules.

Reddit users staged a mass boycott last month over the social media company’s move to charge fees to third-party developers. Protesters were upset at losing the accessibility resources used by disabled communities.

For a long time, the site didn’t have its own app. Third-party apps became popular after Reddit released its official app. People with disabilities who are visually impaired say that the official Reddit website and app do not have basic accessibility features.

The news of the accessibility changes was not well received by the moderators. They say these changes are a hurried, short-sighted attempt to placate communities with disabilities.

The company has a firm commitment to improving accessibility on their platforms. In an Ask-Me-Anything chat, he responded to criticism about Reddit’s approach to accessibility, saying, “for our own apps, there is no excuse. We will do better.