Well, it’ll put Reddit in an odd place. Spez in particular has cited the Moderator Code as a justification to remove mods and instate his own.
THAT would be worse, since then instead of any blackout at all it’s business as usual (while being slowly crippled from bad moderation and decaying user behaviours).
The John Oliver thing is an alternative to THAT. They are technically doing what the users want, which was Reddit’s whole ammunition against them. Closing a sub of millions of people could be said as harming the site significantly enough that reddit steps in. Opening it and maliciously complying with the rules IS what the users want, so Spez will be hard pressed the wrest control of the sub while simultaneously saying he supports the protests in line with the Code.
I mean it’d be as realistic as the rest of the AITA posts, I’m on board