posted in Technology
Reddit is killing RSS feeds and ending public API access because of AI bots
techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/reddit-is-killing-rss-feeds-ending-public-api-access-because-of-ai-bots/
Replying to @return2ozma@lemmy.world
Reddit never gave a shit about bots. To them it’s something that pumps up their active users numbers to woo their investors. They’re only doing this so they can force people to view their ads that are designed to look like posts.
Who goes on Reddit nowadays anyway?
Reddit at one point filtered millions of bots monthly and transparently filed public reports on the actions they had taken, even citing the source of these bot networks if a notable number of them came from places like Russia, China, Myanmar, etc.
That was a long ass time ago, though. Before they killed off the free API access in 2022, and the 3rd party apps and accessibility layers with it.