On Monday, Reddit's VP of community, Laura Nestler, announced in a post on the platform's r/modnews subreddit that the company was changing Community Type settings rules. Going forward, moderators will be required to submit a request to Reddit instead of being able to just change the setting immediately on their own.

Moderators will now need Reddit’s permission to turn subreddits private or not-safe-for-work (NSFW) and they are not happy about the change.

Reddit changes the rules to make sitewide protests much more difficult. Moderators will now have to get admin approval when switching a subreddit from public to private or when adding a NSFW tag.

By requiring admin approval for the changes, Reddit is taking away a lever many communities used to protest the company’s API pricing changes last year. By going private, the community becomes inaccessible to the public, making the platform less usable for the average visitor. And that’s part of the reason behind the change.

Reddit’s users revolted after the site made an unpopular change in 2023. Sensitive to the impact on its business, Reddit shut off the ability to protest using its own tools, which isn't going down well with users.

Reddit has said that if a community is less than 30 days old or has fewer than 5,000 members, requests to change its type will be approved instantly. For all other communities, an administrator will respond within 24 hours. The company also reassured users that it has enough human support to handle these requests 24/7 throughout the year.