

Reddit users are protesting a decision taking effect next month that will introduce fees for apps to access Reddit data, much in the way Twitter has erected a paywall for third-party access to its own platform. Reddit didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The iPhone subreddit, for example, is now exclusively devoted to pictures of Apple CEO Tim Cook. Some Reddit forums have taken other steps, including marking themselves NSFW (not safe for work), deciding to go dark on certain days of the week, or by changing their stated scope of interests. Reddit's fight with its most powerful users enters new phase as blackout continues signage is displayed on a smartphone in an arranged photograph taken in the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., on Tuesday, June 30, 2020.

It’s a calculated tactic to sustain a days-long protest targeting Reddit’s corporate management in the face of a widening crackdown by the company against many of its own users and volunteer moderators. While the sudden spread of Oliver-mania on Reddit may sound like the kind of freewheeling silliness that sometimes overcomes large groups of extremely online people, it also serves a deeper purpose. And an AI-generated image of Oliver as a “Game of Thrones” character (“John Oliver Snow”).

There are images of his face superimposed on the Mediterranean fruit commonly used to garnish martinis (“John Olive”). There have been numerous pictures of Oliver posing in sharply tailored suits, and screenshots of humorous moments from his show. Several of Reddit’s largest self-moderated communities, including r/pics and r/aww, have turned spaces that were once devoted to images of everyday life, or cute and cuddly animals, into what may now be the internet’s biggest repository for pictures of the comedian.įor the past several days, visitors to those groups have been greeted by page after page of Oliver photos - some real, some edited satirically, and all intended to grab the “Last Week Tonight” host’s attention.

After staging a widespread blackout to protest Reddit’s plans for a controversial new pricing policy, some users are now trying a different tactic: flooding the social network with John Oliver pictures.
