From Volunteerism to Corporatization: Analyzing Participation in the 2015 and 2023 Reddit Blackouts

Abstract

Reddit, one of the largest global social media platforms, has undergone significant transformations since its inception in 2005. From a loosely structured, niche platform to a globally recognized company with a standardized and regulated governance system, Reddit’s evolution has been marked by a shift in the power dynamics between its owners, moderators, and users. 2015 and 2023 were marked by the occurrence of two prominent protests, termed “blackouts.” Moderators of numerous subreddits, though not all, disabled public access to their subreddits, thereby protesting the company’s policies and policy changes and challenging the company’s endeavors to exert further control over the platform. Drawing on Bourdieusian theory and relational methodology, we establish a computational social science approach to investigate the structural causes behind the two blackouts and contextualize the differences between them. We argue that these blackouts signify growing tensions within the socio-technical space of Reddit and an ongoing political, cultural, and economic reconfiguration of its power structure and political economy.