But as the text says, this extortion began 5 days before the API changes were even announced. These criminals don't give a f*ck about the API and threaten to leak the data of those same users they're claiming to protect.

I think we should just ignore this, because it's a distraction for public pressure and will only make Reddit look better - either by delegitimising the protest or by making them look like a victim instead of the perpetrator they are.

Karma IS a bitch, but I for one am still not going to stand behind illegalities like this. It's not the way.

As I said before, these hackers don't care. The grandstanding is their way of getting attention off the backs of the protests. All supporting these criminals does is delegitimise the real protest by making Reddit look like the victim.

That aside, even from a practical standpoint this wouldn't work longterm. If extorted into backpeddalling, Reddit will just quietly up their data security, and once they've made sure the threat of a leak is dealt with, they'll go right on back to the API change.