It’s not like they couldn’t put a stop to blackouts before, as seen with the third-party app fiasco, but Reddit has now made that tactic entirely impossible. Mods will now need to get permission from Reddit admins before they can make a sub private. Makes me wonder if they’re about to do something controversial again soon.
Well there’s always the alternative form of protest. What blackouts are is a form of peaceful protest. Protest that is meant to be a nuisance but doesn’t get people hurt. Reddit does have experience though with the other kind of protest, as seen in this article it’s very much not pleasant. That was one group too, imagine if a meaningful number of Redditors tried to breach them, it would be a nightmare for them, no matter how good they claim their security is.