The CEO of Reddit says a mass protest earlier this week did nothing to convince executives to abandon a plan to begin charging for access to the social media platform’s application programming interface (API). The changes will result in some third-party Reddit apps like Apollo shutting down over the next few weeks and impact a handful of tools used by Reddit’s army of volunteer community moderators to curb spam and abuse within their groups. More than 8,000 subreddits participated in the 48-hour lockdown, according to the Associated Press, which impacted millions of users who were unable to post, comment or otherwise engage across much of the community. Moderators said the protest was necessary because Reddit’s decision to charge tens of thousands of dollars for access to their API will almost certainly result in the shutdown of tools they rely on every day. Likewise, users are upset because Apollo and other third-party apps unlock additional features that make Reddit a more enjoyable experience. Image: Unsplash In an interview with NPR on Thursday, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said the thousands of groups protesting the changes were “small” in quantity and that “there’s no way around that.” “We made a business decision that upset them,” Huffman said. “But I think the greater Reddit community just wants to participate with their fellow community members.” Huffman has been particularly vocal about the heartburn that Apollo and its lead developer, Christian Selig, have brought the company since the API changes were first announced. This has been…Reddit CEO boldly says API fees are here to stay, blackout or not