CEO Steve Huffman Says Reddit Was Never Made To Support Third-Party Apps

Reddit was never designed to support third-party applications, CEO Steve Huffman has said, breaking silence as the company faces a huge protest by thousands of Reddit communities.

Thousands of Reddit communities are still dark that are forcing some third-party developers to shut down their apps.

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Reddit was never designed to support third-party applications, CEO Steve Huffman has said, breaking silence as the company faces a huge protest by thousands of Reddit communities against its policy to implement API pricing changes or charge third-party apps for data access. More than 8,000 Reddit communities, which have millions of subscribers, started protesting against Reddit's new API pricing changes that could kill off third-party apps.

Thousands of Reddit communities are still dark that are forcing some third-party developers to shut down their apps, in a protest against the API changes, says a report by The Verge. According to Reddit CEO, those third-party apps aren't adding much value to the platform.

"So the vast majority of the uses of the API -- not (third-party apps like Apollo for Reddit) -- the other 98 per cent of them, make tools, bots, enhancements to Reddit. That's what the API is for," Reddit CEO was quoted as saying in a statement.

"It was never designed to support third-party apps," he added.

Huffman further objected to the third-party apps that are competing with his company. When questioned about if he genuinely believes that the blackouts haven't impacted his decision-making around the API pricing changes at all.

To recall, last week, Huffman had hosted an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session to discuss the platform's controversial API changes, confirming that the company is not planning to revive its coming API pricing changes that have caused multiple developers to announce they will be shutting down their apps.

Earlier this week, Huffman, in an internal memo, told employees that the subreddit blackout "will pass". Huffman has also asked Reddit staffers to be "mindful of wearing Reddit gear in public" as the company faces a huge protest by thousands of Reddit communities against its policy to implement API pricing changes or charge third-party apps for data access. More than 8,000 Reddit communities, which have millions of subscribers, started protesting against Reddit's new API pricing changes that could kill off third-party apps.