"In this world, there are unjust laws.
Should we be content with following them,
or should we strive to change and uphold them until we succeed,
or should we immediately rise up and break them?
One of the co-founders of Reddit, Aaron Hillel Swartz, who pursued freedom of information and internet freedom, once worked here and hoped that Reddit would become a community for free exchange of information. However, what Reddit is currently doing is going against this ideal.
Pacer has put a price on legal documents and even statutes within the scope of public knowledge - 10 cents per page, obstructing the public's right to information. Therefore, he chose to collaborate with like-minded individuals to "attack" Pacer, extracting 760GB of documents from the Pacer system and uploading them to an online public library, making them freely accessible to the public. In the process of collecting these documents, he even discovered the secret of courts abusing their power and violating citizens' privacy rights.
And now, Reddit is using exorbitant API usage fees, effectively depriving third-party software of its livelihood. Reddit, which should have been flowing with the blood of freedom, has turned into a monster, extinguishing the light of freedom that Aaron had just ignited with his life.
But what capital does Reddit have to survive without freedom?
Is it the illogical formatting?
Is it the data accumulated from the past?
Or is it the rounds of financing?
A Reddit without freedom is better off choosing death.
- Some Reddit communities have started protesting against the new API fees, and the protests have lasted for three weeks.
- In protest of the changes in API fees, Reddit users planned a "Reddit blackout" event.
- The third-party Reddit application "Reddit is Fun" (RIF) announced that it will shut down on June 30, 2023, in response to Reddit's API changes.
- Some Reddit communities have begun discussing whether to participate in protests against Reddit's API fees, and some people have permanently deleted their Reddit accounts in protest of the new API fees.
- Some Reddit communities have even started voting to decide whether to shut down within 48 hours on June 12, 2023, in protest of Reddit's API changes.
The arrogance expressed by the Reddit CEO is stripping away the spiritual core that Reddit relies on for survival, leaving behind the shell of a commercial software.
So, Reddit, born in freedom, now chooses to die..."