Reddit’s latest policy changes could dampen future protests against the platform

Reddit is changing its rules to ensure its mods no longer get out of hand.

On Monday, Reddit VP of Community Laura Nestler announced in a post on the platform’s r/modnews Reddit subreddit that the company is changing its rules for setting community types. Going forward, moderators will need to submit requests to Reddit and won’t be able to immediately change the settings themselves.

Community type settings on a subreddit are typically set by moderators and change the subreddit’s visibility from public view to restricted or private. Administrators can also change the community type setting from SFW (Safe for Work) to NSFW (Not Safe for Work), which limits access to the group by age.

Nestlé said in an interview edgeReddit has been talking about the change behind the scenes since she joined the company in 2021.

“When a public community becomes private, all Reddit users (even members of that community) lose access to the community and its content,” Nestlé said in an announcement posted on Reddit. “Except in extenuating circumstances Communities should respect the expectations they set—public communities should be open to everyone; private communities should remain private.”

Suppressing future Reddit protests

Was this change discussed on Reddit before it was released? Reddit blackout in protest It will be difficult for users to see this change as one aimed at silencing future dissent from last year.

In June 2023, thousands of Reddit communities, known as subreddits, changed their community type settings from public to restricted or private in protest of the company’s recent changes to its API. The Reddit API was once free for developers to use. However, the company decided to start charging for API access, which led to some popular Reddit-based applications such as Apollo closure.

Reddit eventually had to step in and take over Some larger subreddits to restore access to these communities. When a Reddit subreddit becomes private, many users and visitors will be completely unable to view the content posted there. Some moderators who refused to comply on Reddit were removed from their moderator duties. We should note that the role of moderator is not typically filled by Reddit employees. Moderator is a completely unpaid, voluntary position held by members of the Reddit community.

Reddit moderators will approve or deny these community type settings change requests. yes Employed by a company.

Earlier this year, Reddit became listed company on the stock market. Now, the social media platform’s community has less wiggle room to engage in actions that could impact the company’s traffic or revenue, just like it did in 2023.

new rules

According to Reddit, moderators must now Submit a request Before making their subreddit private or changing their age restrictions.

Protests aside, an obvious reason to quickly change the type of community might be to avoid being inundated with harassment when a Reddit subreddit is attacked by trolls. The community seems to be more likely to encounter this situation after the rule change. Several mods expressed this concern in replies to the Reddit rules change post.

“Our trans community has experienced massive, organized harassment campaigns in the past, sometimes lasting for months,” one user wrote in the comments on the Reddit announcement. “Private and manually review and approve every applicant is our primary defense to protect our users, their photos and information.”

Mashable reached out to Reddit for comment on this potential issue, as well as more information about the overall changes, but we did not receive a response in time for publication.

Mods can apply for these requests at any time and will receive a response within 24 hours. Requests from subreddits with fewer than 5,000 members or less than 30 days old will be automatically approved.

Moderators can still temporarily restrict posts and comments in their subreddits temporary events policy. Restrictions placed on a Reddit subreddit due to a sudden surge in traffic do not require Reddit’s approval. These restrictions remain in place for up to 7 days under temporary events.

Whatever the real reasons behind Reddit’s new rules, the changes likely won’t be received favorably by moderators, as Reddit removes the source of influence these community members once had.