Reddit site goes down in the midst of a subreddit blackout

In true Reddit apocalypse fashion, hordes of users found themselves staring at a cryptic message today: “Something went wrong. Just don’t panic.”

The site went kaput with the “Popular” page staging a disappearing act, making Down Detector explode with a staggering 40,000+ outage report.

However, in my testing, the site seems to be up and running again, so who the hell knows what’s happening.

But hell be damned if I’m going to let this post go to waste because, in a sense, Reddit is still down (at least in my heart).

As we reported last week, most of the good subreddits have gone dark in protest over Reddit’s greedy API policies.

4,000 7,000 subreddits, with hundreds of millions of subscribers, suddenly went dark in an unprecedented protest over API changes that threatened to end popular third-party apps.

Some subreddits say they will opt for a temporary 48-hour blackout, while others, like the iPhone subreddit, gear up for an indefinite shutdown. 

Check out the live stream below that shows all the subreddits standing in solidarity with the site. Someone even created a website that shows all the subreddits flicking the power off in real-time here https://reddark.untone.uk

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Reddit is literally losing control of its site

In a last-ditch effort to calm everyone down, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman held an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on the platform.

Sadly, it didn’t work – instead, it turned into a public relations disaster. The Reddit crisis keeps growing and is now catching the online world’s attention. Keep watching for updates; this fight is far from over.

Have any thoughts on this? Drop us a line below in the comments, or carry the discussion to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

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Kevin Raposo

Kevin is KnowTechie's founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com or find him on Mastodon or Post.