Reddit Will Soon Require Users in Select Markets to Be Logged In

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman announced yesterday an upcoming major change for the popular forum-style platform: The company will soon require people visiting Reddit to be logged in, and the experiment will start in the coming months in select markets outside of the US.

Huffman emphasized that this is “a big evolution for Reddit, and not one we’re taking lightly.” However, the Reddit CEO believes that ending logged-out access is necessary to keep the platform sustainable, especially at a time when AI chatbots are scraping Reddit data. And the exec believes that this change won’t compromise users’ privacy.

“We’re making the change because it’s better for user experience, better for our ads business, is more in line with safety regulations, and more protective of Reddit data. And we can do this while continuing to ensure user privacy,” Huffman wrote.

Three years ago, Twitter/X preceded Reddit in requiring users to be logged in to browse the platform. At the time, Elon Musk said that the platform was getting its data “pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users.”

A year later, Reddit announced a content licensing deal with OpenAI allowing the AI startup to bring Reddit content to ChatGPT. Huffman hinted that this is how Reddit wants its data to be accessed by other companies going forward.

“We will continue licensing our corpus intentionally, but those commercial deals come with guardrails that protect our users and our business. Any commercial deals give us the right to say what the data can and can’t be used for and how it’s presented. Without those guardrails and that intentionality, we can’t control who has access to Reddit data, where things go or what they’re used for,” the CEO explained.

It’s not exactly clear yet how Reddit plans to restrict its content to logged-out users, however. Huffman said that “the front page being available logged-out is useful and important,” adding that it will still be possible to share posts and view them when coming from search or other sources. However, browsing the platform will require being logged in, and the platform’s incognito mode will still be available.

“When this is on, it’s truly private. You can browse and search Reddit without affecting your logged-in account. It’s read-only, but I think it’s a better, more private experience than what others in the market are offering,” Huffman said about Reddit’s Incognito mode.