Explainer: Reddit protest: Why are thousands of subreddits going dark?

Thousands of popular Reddit communities dedicated to topics ranging from Apple Inc to gaming and music locked out their users on Monday in protest against the company’s plan to charge for access to its data.

Starting next month, third-party app developers using Reddit’s vast troves of data will have to pay a price and the changes could affect players across the spectrum – from deeper-pocketed companies such as OpenAI to small developers.

The Apollo app – popular among Redditors for its alternate interface to the official platform – has said the exorbitant fees have “made it impossible” to continue offering the service.