This seems like a really big problem to me. I tried searching lemmy for it, but have not found anything conclusive.
I found a post or two claiming that the issue is that the API is implemented using websockets only, so it’s not as simple as just turning it off. I really hope that is not the case, since I currently can’t read anything on the frontpage that takes more than a few seconds!
As I recall, there was an uproar back then as well when they started cleaning up subreddits. (/r/jailbait was one, /r/beatingwomen another, and a bunch of other subreddits about various illegal activities.)
In fact the vitrol directed at spez currently really reminds me of that, there were pictures of the then-CEO’s face everywhere along with “fuck Ellen Pao”. Then, funnily enough, spez came in (came back) as the replacement and people were happy again because he was one of the OG admins.