Reddit Moderators Are Protesting By Changing Their Communities to NSFW

In protest of Reddit’s new API fees, the moderators of some big subreddits have cast aside the usual rules and changed their communities to NSFW. 

Reddit doesn't allow ads to run on subreddits that are marked NSFW; in theory, keeping advertisers off of some of the most popular subreddits on the site would deprive the company of some serious ad revenue.

From June 12 to the 14th, thousands of subreddits turned their communities private, locking out hundreds of millions of users in protest of new fees for accessing the site’s API. Third-party app developers, researchers, and developers use the site’s API to build tools and collect data, but in most cases, the fees would be too exorbitant to continue that work. The developers for popular third party Reddit app Apollo said it would cost more than $20 million per year to keep running, and shut down as a result. Unpaid, volunteer moderators, especially, rely on third-party apps to keep their subreddits running safely in compliance with Reddit’s terms of use. 

On r/interestingasfuck, with nearly 11.5 million members, all NSFW content is now allowed as long as it fits within Reddit’s sitewide terms of use. Things like harassment and sexualization of minors are still forbidden, but when it comes to porn—which previously wasn’t allowed in the sub—all bets are off. 

“Reddit has made it clear that users, not volunteer moderators are the true owners of subreddits. So the community rules are changing to reflect that,” mods wrote when they announced r/interestingasfuck reopening on June 19, with the new rules. “Going forward the only subreddit specific rule is that any content you submit must be something you consider interesting as fuck. That's it.” Most of the posts now are trolling or pornographic, like “is this an interesting way to take off a sundress?” and Photoshopped images of Toy Story characters with huge boobs. 

r/ShittyLifeProTips, which was previously mostly what it says in the title—people seeking bad advice—is now full of porn with titles that start with “Spez is a greedy little pig boy.”

r/self, with more than 2 million members, which is for “self-posts for discussion, questions, or anything else you like,” is now unmoderated, and people are ignoring the “no porn” rule. 

Formula 1 racing subreddit r/formula1 switched to classify itself and all of its posts as NSFW, but doesn’t allow porn. “Formula 1 is inherently dangerous. Crashes and injuries are not uncommon - some even with fatal results,” mods wrote, announcing the change this week. “These incidents are discussed on r/formula1, and videos, images and other media are posted following these events.” 

Following the changes, several of these subreddits became unmoderated. An unmoderated sub is banned from Reddit after two months without mod activity, per the site’s rules. r/MildlyInteresting mods reported that after they reopened and started allowing NSFW content, all of the moderators were removed and their accounts were banned. 

“Moderators incorrectly marking a community as NSFW is a violation of both our Content Policy and Moderator Code of Conduct,” Reddit spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt told The Verge, in response to r/mildlyinteresting mods’ removal. The mods for that subreddit have since been reinstated, but several of the others who marked their subs as NSFW are still without mods. 

Reddit is seemingly scrambling and attempting to flex its muscles by threatening entire moderation teams that have been protesting, and by removing specific moderators from subreddits that have protested. Reddit corporate generally seems to be scrambling for order in a protest that has shifted and changed in the last week.

r/horny, originally a popular NSFW subreddit, is staging the opposite protest: They’ve changed the title of the sub to “Welcome to our Christian Minecraft Server” and are “bidding farewell” to adult content, a mod wrote in a thread. “The winds of change have blown across the vast Reddit landscape, and the terrain has become treacherous. Alas, our valiant mod team can no longer ensure the safety and well-being of our members while navigating the realms of NSFW content.” 

The rules for r/horny now forbid NSFW content, and say, “Remember, we've traded in our spicy content for holy waters. Keep it clean, folks. Absolutely no NSFW, adult content, or anything that would make your Sunday school teacher blush.” 

Earlier this month, Huffman said that it’s a “constant fight” to keep allowing explicit content on the site, because “the regulatory environment has gotten much stricter about adult content, and as a result we have to be strict / conservative about where it shows up.”