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ALMOST 5,000 OF the most popular forums on Reddit have remained ‘dark’ this week in protest over the social media site’s decision to change its policy around allowing third-party developers to use its data.
The protest by Reddit users is the latest fallout from the arrival of AI programmes that hoover up data from across the internet, with Reddit CEO Steve Huffman unwilling to allow companies that build AI chatbots to have free access to the site, which they use to develop their large language models.
Founded in 2005, Reddit is a hugely popular global forum where news is aggregated, content is shared and discussions are freely accessible.
With 430 million monthly active users, Reddit is among the most visited social media sites in the world and is particularly popular for ‘redditors’ with niche hobbies and interests.
Users can join an online community forum called a subreddit, where they can share and consume text, video or pictures related to a specified topic. For example, here’s the subreddit for Monopoly enthusiasts, r/monopoly.
There are also large, popular subreddits with broader subjects like r/Music or r/funny.
“Reddit needs to be a self-sustaining business, and to do that, we can no longer subsidize commercial entities that require large-scale data use,” Huffman wrote in a Reddit post last week.
Access to Reddit’s application programming interface (API), which is the means by which other applications can connect to the platform, used to be available for free. The new policy announced by Reddit is set to change that by charging fees for access to site data.
Third party apps are made for a variety of reasons. For example, the moderator of a subreddit may wish to create a bot to automate some of their tasks.
Or in the case of apps like Apollo, they redesign the look and interface of the site itself for easier use. Reddit’s layout is infamously clunky, especially on mobiles and the website didn’t have its own mobile app until 2016.
The new policy will see third-parties who wish to access Reddit’s API paying $21,000 for 50 million access requests, which is expensive by industry standards, but not as high as Twitter, which now charges $42,000 for the same number.
When an app like Apollo needs to connect to and receive data from Reddit, that would be logged and the app company charged based on how many requests it makes (under the incoming policy).
Reddit’s decision has been met with dismay and frustration from moderators of thousands of subreddits, who have made the decision to make their forums private, which means users must request access, but essentially means they are offline.
If you were to open your favourite ‘sub’ this week, there is a good chance you were met with a dark window with a notification telling you the forum is now private, such as the one below.
Reddit’s move to start charging for data access was prompted by the recent release of large language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.
The chatbots were partly trained using Reddit’s freely accessible data, in this case text, something Reddit wants to change by making third parties pay for access starting from Monday.
Twitter also used to have a freely accessible API until recently, when Elon Musk took over the site and made its data private in an attempt to bring some much needed revenue into the struggling company’s coffers.
In another example of AI programmes causing disruption online, Getty Images filed a lawsuit against Stability AI, the company that makes the image generating software Stable Diffusion, earlier this year.
Many of the images produced by Stable Diffusion have a mangled form of the Getty Images water mark in them because it used the company’s images as source material, without consent from Getty.
Apollo, which is the most popular app for using Reddit on Apple products, announced five days ago that it would be closing down on 30 June due to the unmanageable cost it would incur in maintaining the app once the new fees come in.
The app company’s founder, former Apple employee Christian Selig, has been critical of the manner in which Reddit has dealt with the situation, especially since Huffman told employees in a memo this week that the protest would pass eventually.
Selig made his thoughts known by retweeting an article from The Verge which reported the memo.
It's a real shame that Reddit seems to care this little about the community that rather than making an effort to talk to developers and moderators and apologize for how this was handled, they'd rather just wall themselves off and and dare users to keep going. https://t.co/a402igmvhZ
— Christian Selig (@ChristianSelig) June 13, 2023
The protest, which was originally signed up to by over 8,000 subreddits, was scheduled to run for two days and the number of dark accounts is already beginning to shrink, however, there are some subreddits that are still joining.
What happens in the coming days remains to be seen but for now, much of one of the internet’s most popular social media sites remains in the dark.
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It is high time that everyone, absolutely everyone in society recognise that Mná na hÉireann hold up half the sky.
What are our gardai doing to protect our women from violent individuals as this
Our gardai need more resources and manpower this is happening to much in our society
@Richarddoherty: We need whole scale reform of our justice laws in general where dangerous individuals don’t get freed on bail as soon as they commit crimes and when they do get to court, that they don’t get away with lenient sentences. How often have we seen perpetrators of violent acts such as this having multiple previous convictions, yet free to go about their business? This horrific murder should be the impetus for real change where people are not afraid to walk or run alone on our roads and streets. Yes bring in education from an early age, but unfortunately it won’t have an immediate effect if nothing else is done in addition to it.
@Richarddoherty: do you know something nobody else does?
@Richarddoherty: the Gardaí can’t be everywhere. They aren’t the problem, it’s happening too much because of men thinking they can assault and harrass women whenever they feel like it. Women should be able to go for a run, or a walk, or do whatever the hell they want without feeling unsafe or like they might need the help of a guard.
@Longlin: Sherlock Longlin’s cracked it already. Rounded up all the usual suspects and waterboarded them until a couple confessed. Next.
@Richarddoherty: Can you tell Michael Tormeys family that he doesn’t matter and the Garda should be doing more to protect women.
@Sam Harms: because there aren’t enough of them. I live in southern Spain and have never driven more than 20 minutes without seeing a police car. I lived 50 years in Ireland and saw no more than 25 check points. I drove at least 50 miles a day
@Ian James Burgess: more guards isn’t going to stop men assaulting women. The only thing that can stop that is a change in attitude. More guards isn’t going to stop men shouting and whistling at women walking down the street, or grabbing them in a bar. We shouldn’t need a guard on every street to make us feel safe.
@Sam Harms: You are mixing up men who show disrespect to women and men who murder women. They are two very different things. Men who murder women have serious mental health issues. Usually, this come from childhood abuse of some form. Google any physco killer and look at their background. If I was with Charles Mason in a bar and he said some derogatory about a woman, me calling him up on it was never going to stop him killing women. He killed women because his mother sold him for beer. Its mental health services and better sentencing that needs to be looked at, don’t be blaming millions of innocent men. If a woman kills her children in her own home do people say, women do better? They certainly do not, there would be uproar. they would say why didn’t she get the help she needed.
@Fandandi: and by the way, I’m not saying men shouldn’t do better in terms of respecting women in general, that needs to happen, I’m saying it won’t stop random killings on any gender
@Richarddoherty: can you imagine being a Guard. Arrest a t.h.u.g. for the 50th time. Go to court. Solicitor appointed for free legal aid. Solicitor presents a case the poor individual has had it tough… soft or suspended sentence… utterly deflating for the Gaurd.
May she rest in peace
I couldn’t make a vigil today, but there in spirit. Absolutely heartbreaking stuff. I’m glad the country showed up. I hope the all those who need to hear it and who think everyday cat calling and harassment or stand by silently as their mates do it. are listening carefully. Their time is up. We need action on every front now – 14% of rapes in Ireland make it to court – 14% of women have faced violence in the home. The women of Ireland are angry, scared and exhausted. When will it change?
@Lucy Legacy: There are vigils being held across the country tomorrow: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2714251528881837&id=1808278706145795
@Lucy Legacy: why do people feel the need to create a divide between the genders? The women of Ireland are angry etc etc. You think the 99% of men in Ireland who would never even consider hurting a woman aren’t also disgusted with what happened? Do people think it’s helpful to casually pass blame onto someone because of their gender?
@Stephen Foster: this attitude by the keyboard warriors on their high horses has ensured a man’s life has been wrecked because of the level of ineptitude by the Gardai regarding the questioning of an innocent person. People are so willing to hate an individual or element of society if it seems everyone else is. Gotta love groupthink.
@Stephen Foster: The known figures of how many women (children, and vulnerable others) have been harassed, (sexually) assaulted, and murdered clearly shows it is not “99% of men in Ireland who would never consider hurting a woman”. The actual real figure is too uncomfortable for people, because then they would have to own their (past) behaviour and/or the actions of those they thought they could trust.
@Felicity Hensen: what is the real figure ?
@Stephen Foster: exactly my son was attacked randomly had his face slashed guards didn’t entertain it but if he was female would more have been done devastated over what happened this poor lady and hope her killer will be got but I fear with this outpour against violence against women what’s going to happen if a woman feels uncomfortable because my son looked the wrong way innocently and he gets hauled in our younger generation of boys will be terrified to approach a woman to ask her out on a date
@Felicity Hensen: no parent should lose their child to murder no matter what gender they are no child should be murdered no woman should be murdered no man should be murdered it’s all over the board and I’m actually sick over this beautiful lady been murdered but it actually happens every day in this country and gender
dosent matter
@Felicity Hensen: what is the figure felicity and what are you saying.
@Felicity Hensen: you cannot conflate wolf whistling with murder. These are two separate issues.
Typical f journal no comment s allowed on the government ill make sure the real voters know what the journal are at
Was an emotional evening in Ennischrone Co sligo. A huge thank you to the local business that supported the vigil like pudding row easky, Joe queenan local council representative, waterfront restaurant ennischrone, EK photocare ballina, Blooms and Things Florists ballina, David McGowan funeral director, Karina hallinan, Michael McGowan & Fr Gerry for mass and ballads Claire hannon local resident, Peter regan local resident, local GAA club, enniscrone anglers, Midwest & today fm for advertising on the radio and to everyone who attended. The shrine will be there over the weekend so if your around please keep the candles burning. The book of condolences will be available in ennischrone Church over the weekend for anyone whom couldn’t attend this evening. May she rest in peace
I think it’s pathetic that Sinn Fein are posting footage of vigils for Aishling Murphy and condemning violence against women when they refuse to address the Jean McConville case. Let’s hear from Mary Lou how the IRA murdered a Mother and dumped her body and left the family in torment for decades. The IRA didn’t care about sex when it came to their victims but are now trying to use the sex car by having females leading the party. Would somebody please ask Mary Lou and Michelle O Neill how they can campaign for women’s right knowing what their party has don in the past.
We need to trust women in the running of their safe spaces and stop allowing men to shout them down
They removed my comments, I have never ever seen so much hypocrisy!
Lowest of the low.
You people are not journalists!
have your say