Reddit CEO Steve Huffman laid out the plan to mandate sign-in on Thursday to curb data scraping on the social media platform, after pointing to Google’s AI search features as a factor behind declining referral traffic
In a significant shift for one of the internet’s most open discussion platforms, Reddit plans to prioritize logged-in users, marking a major shift in its 21-year history.
The company wants to improve user experience, strengthen advertising revenue, and protect its content from unauthorized scraping by AI companies and bots.
CEO Steve Huffman said logged-in users spend more time on Reddit, helping the platform understand their interests and deliver targeted ads. He laid out the plan to mandate sign-in on Thursday to curb data scraping on the social media platform, after pointing to Google’s AI search features as a factor behind declining referral traffic.
Reddit will test the new experience outside the US before expanding it. Visitors without accounts can still browse the homepage and open posts through search engines and shared links. However, commenting and other participation features will require login.
The move comes as Reddit's advertising revenue jumped 54% year over year in the third quarter. The company also wants to protect its vast collection of human discussions as AI demand for online content grows.