Pushshift was a free third-party API that was letting any user to query Reddit data. While you likely never heard of it, your moderation bot, searching tools such as https://redditsearch.io/ or tools to display removed comments on a subreddit - https://www.reveddit.com/ all relied on pushshift to do the job of archiving Reddit for them.
In preparation for their push to monetize content owned by their users (as ads are clearly not paying enough), Reddit has shut it down and it will only be coming back up for “explicitly Reddit approved” moderators.
Luckily the guy running pushshift, u/Stuck_In_the_Matrix, has published the data in the torrent network, therefore it is impossible to remove off the Internet at this point https://academictorrents.com/details/7c0645c94321311bb05bd879ddee4d0eba08aaee
Unfortuately pushshift didn’t remove anything from the static data dumps, so you will need to make another request with us. There will be a ticketing system in the near future (at or before near the launch) to enable us to process removals efficiently. If you would like to request it right now, or you would like some advice on removal process, please DM me on Discord (link below)
I have been working on a replacement full time since the announcement telling that access to pushshift will be permanently restricted. Ingestion and storage are complete. API is TODO. Servers are picked and are being provisioned.
Normally I hate to break the stealth phase before there is a product, however current events have forced my hand.
I anticipated launching the service by myself in about a month, but I can get some help (skills needed are 90% Python) so that all this could be completed much much sooner.
So whether you are a developer, or just bystander, join us on our Discord server https://discord.gg/Zd95JW5k and spread the word.