Reddit is taking measures to prevent protests on the platform. From now on, subreddit moderators will have to submit a request to the platform administration to change the type of subreddit. This was reported by The Verge.

By requiring administrator approval to change the type of subreddit, Reddit is taking away the leverage that many communities used to protest the company’s API pricing changes last year. Content from private subreddits does not appear in the public feed, which makes the platform less saturated for the average visitor.

“The ability to instantly change Community Type settings has been used to break the platform and violate our rules,” writes Reddit VP of community Laura Nestler. “We have a responsibility to protect Reddit and ensure its long-term health, and we cannot allow actions that deliberately cause harm.”

Last year, thousands of subreddits went private to protest changes in pricing on Reddit’s API, forcing some communities to close. In addition, the content of private subreddits has become less well indexed by search aggregators such as Google.

After the protests, Reddit has almost returned to normal. But it seems the company still feels it has to make changes to protect the platform.

“While we are making this change to ensure users’ expectations regarding a community’s access do not suddenly change, protest is allowed on Reddit,” writes Nestler. “We want to hear from you when you think Reddit is making decisions that are not in your communities’ best interests. But if a protest crosses the line into harming redditors and Reddit, we’ll step in.”

Reddit says it will review requests to change the type of subreddit to private or NSFW within 24 hours. For smaller or newer communities that have fewer than 5,000 members or have been around for less than 30 days, requests will be approved automatically.