No extra NSFW? Reddit blocks entry to porn, obscenity by way of third-party apps

Reddit has blocked entry to mature content material on the platform by way of third-party apps. The firm’s CEO Steve Huffman introduced final month that entry to mature content material by way of third-party apps would now not work as of July 5. Users will now need to log in to the official Reddit app to view specific content material.

In a Reddit submit final month, CEO Steve Huffman had introduced, “Effective July 5, 2023, we are going to restrict entry to mature content material by way of our Data API as a part of an ongoing effort to offer guardrails to how specific content material and communities on Reddit are found and seen,”.Huffman had additional famous that the change in Data API won’t impression any moderator bots or extensions. 

A report by Vice famous that Reddit’s transfer is geared toward forcing customers to undertake the official Reddit app as an alternative of third-party apps. The report famous that third-party apps do not simply embody porn, but in addition different forms of specific content material, together with intercourse training, conversations about sexuality and hurt discount.

Reddit introduced in April that it deliberate to permit third events entry to its utility programming interface, or API, information. In an interview with the New York Times, Huffman had argued that standard chatbots available on the market resembling Google’s Bard, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing Chat had been skilled utilizing Reddit’s API information.

In the submit written final month, Huffman reiterated the necessity for API charges, saying “Reddit must be a self-sustaining enterprise, and to try this, we will now not subsidize industrial entities that require large-scale information use.”

Redditors have been in arms in regards to the firm’s choice to cost exorbitantly for API information which is utilized by third-party apps to offer options that aren’t accessible on the official app and have been utilized by moderators for managing their communities. 

Many subreddits even went to the extent of organizing a 48-hour-long protest in opposition to the brand new API modifications. Some of those communities began posting pornographic content material or taking their subreddits as NSFW as a type of protest in opposition to the modifications introduced in by Reddit. NSFW subreddits can’t be marketed and additional age-related restrictions are positioned on getting into the subreddit.

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Updated: 07 Jul 2023, 12:02 PM IST