Reddit Is Further Locking Itself Down ⇥ axios.com

Reddit administrator “judy-funnie” (via Michael Tsai):

Because RSS is now a common surface for large-scale scraping and automated abuse, we’ll stop supporting RSS feeds on November 13, 2026 while preserving moderation workflows that depend on it through supported alternatives.

[…]

To close this gap, in the next few months, we’ll further limit access for logged-in users to only those who have used Old Reddit in the last six months (which covers the vast majority of all Old Reddit users). […]

Old Reddit is a lightweight website that generally respects its users, so it is a priority for people to switch to its bloated replacement. Not for users, of course, but for someone.

Reddit administrator “boat-botany”:

We’re sharing the timeline for moving public API apps and bots to the Developer Platform. Register now, apply for migration funding by November 30, and start planning and testing your move. Starting January 12, 2027, we’ll begin removing API access for apps and users that haven’t registered or engaged with us. Remaining public API access will end in March 2027.

Sara Fischer, Axios:

Reddit has long championed the open web. Now, it’s pushing to build a more direct relationship with users while also protecting its data from increased scraping in the AI era.

In an interview Thursday, Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman said the company is making the change to improve its user experience, bolster its ads business and prevent bots from scraping its proprietary data.

Two of those three reasons seem believable.

There was once a time when we could use a relatively inexpensive computer to connect to the web and freely read discussion boards. It feels almost quaint now that A.I. “hyperscaler” companies have scraped everything they could access on the web, and with — as near as makes no difference — unlimited funding, bought a bunch of graphics processors and memory. Now the price of every kind of computer hardware has gone up, and companies like Reddit are trying to control access. This is not because Reddit respects users’ unique contributions, nor will it compensate them. It is just not making enough money for shareholders.

Huffman blames declining Google search traffic — a disappointingly familiar story. It is an extraordinary coup. The web’s most important referral source built up a vast data set and then yanked away the entire reason everyone contributed to it. “Evil” is four-letter euphemism.