Reddit: Comedian John Oliver becomes the face of a revolution

Who Owns Reddit?
How comedian John Oliver became the unasked face of a revolution against one of the biggest social networks

A battle is currently raging on Reddit over the question of who actually decides the fate of social media. And right in the middle of it you keep hitting the face of John Oliver. The comedian actually has nothing to do with the Kulturkampf. And still having fun with it.

Suddenly he was everywhere. Pictures of John Oliver snogging a head of cabbage, from his year book, from appearances on his show “Last Week Tonight” have dominated the main page of the social media giant Reddit for days. It’s an open revolution against the leadership: users are dissatisfied with numerous decisions, CEO Steve “Spez” Huffman responds with pure hatred. Oliver has unwittingly become the face of the struggle against leadership. And cheerfully pours fuel on the fire.

The battle over Reddit has been simmering for weeks, erupting openly for the first time last week. The users felt they were not being taken seriously by the company and showed their power by shutting down thousands of sub-forums, so-called subs. After the leadership didn’t respond, the forums were brought back online. But instead of the usual content, there was only – John Oliver. The message is clear: if you continue like this, we’ll just do what we want. And not what makes you the money.

Who Owns Reddit?

The uprising is possible because Reddit relies on its most active users even more than other social media. The subs’ interest groups are the heart of the network. The users create the content and, with their ratings, ensure which content ends up on the homepage. Without user contributions, even subs subscribed to by millions of people, such as r/gaming or r/pics, would remain empty. And Reddit also leaves the moderation to unpaid volunteers. Who are now using this to show their power.

Specifically, it is about plans by the leadership of Spez to change the way additional software works. So far, developers have been able to request access to the platform’s data via program interfaces, so-called APIs, and then build programs around them. That was previously free. Now the Reddit company has announced that it will charge money for access. And thereby endangers not only popular third-party applications, but also the work of the mods. The users and moderators ran a storm accordingly.

Anger at extortionate prices

Dealing with the developer Christian Selig is particularly annoying. He runs the Apollo iPhone app, which makes Reddit’s use far more convenient than the original app. Apollo is so popular that Apple explicitly highlighted the program as a highlight in its last keynote speech on new Apple software. Two days later, Selig announced that the app would be discontinued at the end of the month. The reason: the unbearably high prices that Reddit suddenly demanded of him.

Selig explained in a detailed post that he had calculated the costs several times. Even by his most optimistic calculations, he found himself having to wire $20 million a year to Reddit out of nowhere, he explained. That’s more than twice what Reddit would earn from users. His heart project died with it. Attempts to negotiate with Reddit, for example to display the network’s advertising in the app or to lower prices, have been blocked. Instead, Selig was suddenly accused of blackmail by Reddit. It was said that one could no longer work with him. Selig then released recordings of all phone calls to the network to exonerate himself.

Reddit’s response did little to exonerate. In one of the famous Reddit question and answer sessions, called AMA, Huffmann actually wanted to ask for understanding. Instead, he resorted to attacks. And as a result, received tons of negative reviews. The fact that he claimed in an internal letter that this storm would also continue without consequences only enraged the users even more.

John Oliver as the face of the revolution

More than 5,000 subs participated in what is known as a blackout last week, in which scores of subs were made private and unreadable. Including numerous subs with more than 30 million subscribers. Reddit at least moved a bit. A moderator reported that the company had at least agreed to continue using the moderation tools free of charge. Because the company management around Spez continued to make only pejorative comments, many subs remained closed even after the deadline had been passed. Others probably opened up again under pressure from the leadership. And replaced the actual content with the face of John Oliver.

The idea behind it is understandable if you know the British comedian’s show. “Last Week Tonight” is formally a comedy show. In fact, the show is devoted to half an hour of researched topics every week, often about the failure of institutions, companies or social injustices. It is no coincidence that this is reminiscent of the “Magazine Royale”. Jan Böhmermann’s show is very clearly inspired by the American model. Of course, Reddit users know the power of television. And tried to draw Oliver’s attention to their fight with the campaign.

That has now been achieved. “Dear Reddit, excellent work,” Oliver tweeted. And supported the fight in his own way. With the words “r/pics: Get started” he put up ten more or less embarrassing images of himself as templates. The revolutionaries can’t expect support from the show at the moment: Because of the writers’ strike in Hollywood, “Last Week Tonight” is currently not on the air.

Sources: Christian Selig, JohnOliver