Reddit CEO warns employees not to wear Reddit swag in public as users revolt
- Reddit's CEO is warning employees not to wear branded gear in public as users stage a mass revolt.
- In an internal memo, Steve Huffman shrugged off the backlash that's shut down swaths of the site, The Verge reported.
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman isn't worried about the mass user backlash that shut down huge sections of the social media site — but he is warning employees to be careful wearing branded swag in public, The Verge reported.
In an internal memo obtained by The Verge, Huffman told employees to "please be mindful" of wearing Reddit gear.
"Some folks are really upset, and we don't want you to be the object of their frustrations," he wrote, according to The Verge.
Reddit declined to comment on the reported memo.
Thousands of subreddits affecting millions of viewers are protesting after Reddit announced it would drastically increase prices for third-party developers to access its API. Those developers who've created clients to read Reddit and expand moderation tools have publicly protested.
The developer of Apollo, a hugely popular third-party app, said the changes would cost them millions and force them to shut down.
After a disastrous Q&A on Reddit, in which Huffman was trashed by users who criticized the new policy, popular subreddits run by volunteers announced they'd "go dark" and set their forums to private starting on Monday to protest the changes.
Users have threatened to abandon the site. The loss of third-party apps would force users onto the official Reddit app, where they'd have to deal with advertisements.
In his memo, Huffman shrugged off the outrage, The Verge reported.
"There's a lot of noise with this one. Among the noisiest we've seen," he said, according to The Verge. "Please know that our teams are on it, and like all blowups on Reddit, this one will pass as well."
The Verge reported that Huffman wrote the protest hasn't had "any significant revenue impact so far."
He also vowed to keep "moving forward" with the API changes that sparked the user revolt, according to the Verge.
"We absolutely must ship what we said we would," Huffman said. "The only long-term solution is improving our product."
Reddit has been eyeing an IPO for years, and recently laid off about 90 employees as it tries to get profitable, the Wall Street Journal reported.