757 upvotes, 8 direct replies (showing 8)
View submission: An Update Regarding Reddit’s API
Reddit will limit access to mature content via our Data API as part of an ongoing effort to provide guardrails to how sexually explicit content and communities on Reddit are discovered and viewed.
Why? These are data API's, not the front page. If you're using these API's, you should already know what you're getting.
Comment by Ghigs at 18/04/2023 at 17:09 UTC
816 upvotes, 6 direct replies
To kill third party clients.
Comment by mouth_with_a_merc at 19/04/2023 at 20:40 UTC
25 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Yeah, what the actual fuck. Let me browse my smut via *rif is fun*. Your official app is *not great* đź’© and even if it wasn't, I would NOT want to switch from an app I've used for YEARS to one with a different UI.
Comment by Bardfinn at 18/04/2023 at 17:37 UTC
57 upvotes, 5 direct replies
Why?
They said it. It’s to keep people from Fusker-ing Reddit.
In the past, Reddit has served images using a specific naming convention. They start with https://i.redd.it/ and then have a BASE36 randomly generated file name for the image.
Those images could be viewed without any particular watermark or overlay or the surrounding context they were first published in —
So any NSFW subreddit could be “scraped” by a suitable JavaScript and the contents of the galleries there streamed to a client computer, absent Reddit’s html, css, and notably also absent any authentication by Reddit’s servers that the client was logged in, and had represented to be legally able to access material that — for example, in the US — is illegal for minors to access.
These changes counter and prevent that exploited loophole, where some arbitrary person uses Reddit’s infrastructure to host and distribute material while circumventing the required check to ensure that it’s not being served to minors.
Which also put a load on Reddit’s infrastructure costs.
Comment by Chrimunn at 18/04/2023 at 17:17 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
EXACTLY
Comment by KeyserSosa at 18/04/2023 at 18:21 UTC
-69 upvotes, 16 direct replies
We’re doing this to improve safety, protect the privacy of redditors, and adhere to local regulations. As noted in the post, this is part of an ongoing effort to provide guardrails to how sexually explicit content and communities on Reddit are discovered and viewed.
Comment by Paynamia at 19/04/2023 at 19:39 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Piggybacking the top comment for this, lol.
I've made a petition about this change, if you care about third-party apps, please sign and share.
https://www.change.org/p/stop-reddit-limitting-third-party-apps-api-access
Comment by xjoburg at 07/06/2023 at 02:43 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Seems they’re trying to blow smoke up people’s arses on this. We can see right through it. They are looking for new revenue streams. Plan and simple.
Comment by ragnar_lama at 07/06/2023 at 21:34 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
We all support this