John Oliver is now the face of the Reddit protest

If you’ve been on Reddit over the past few weeks, you’ve undoubtedly noticed a difference. A user-led protest against the social media company now has a new face: John Oliver.

Redditors in the site’s biggest subreddits closed off the forums over disagreements with Reddit management. When Reddit announced charges and fees for third-party apps providing access to the site, thousands of users revolted.

Among those supporting the protest is John Oliver. The late-night TV host tweeted a message congratulating Redditors back on June 17. With it, the Last Week Tonight host shared a thread of pictures and invited the subreddit r/pics to “have at it.”

The result was some of Reddit’s biggest forums flooding the feed with images of Oliver. Subreddits including r/aww and r/gifs reopened only to share images of Oliver.

Reddit users voted to use John Oliver’s images to flood the site

Why did Reddit users pick John Oliver? It all came down to the popular vote. Subscribers to the biggest discussion boards on the site voted to only featured images and GIFs of Oliver. And the vote wasn’t even close. An overwhelming majority of users sided with the decision to promote Oliver over the typical content featured in the subreddits.

On the other side, Reddit’s leadership appears unwilling to back down. The site’s management has criticized the volunteer moderators and millions of users protesting the third-party app restrictions.

Will the John Oliver movement change anything? That seems unlikely. But, it does have the benefit of delighting millions of users (including Oliver) and bringing more attention to the issue.