Reddit, the popular social media platform, announced plans to enhance user verification in response to the rise of AI-generated bots that impersonate human users. CEO Steve Huffman shared insights on the company’s strategy to work with third-party services to ensure the authenticity of its user base while maintaining the anonymity that is fundamental to Reddit’s identity.
Read more about this decision, which follows a deeply worrying demonstration of AI-powered bots unleashed on the “Change My View” subreddit. Researchers created these bots to act like actual users. He/she/they took on many identities, from abuse survivors to terrorist attackers. More than 1,700 comments were posted by these bots, triggering what Huffman characterized as a “mini-nightmare” for Reddit. In response, Johnson & Johnson denounced the experiment and lodged an official complaint with the university conducting it.
Reddit increased its verification efforts. To accomplish this, it’s partnering with a number of third-party platforms such as Persona, Alloy, Stripe Identity, Plaid and Footprint. These services usually need some form of government-issued ID to verify a user’s age and human-ness. Huffman emphasizes that Reddit will not collect sensitive personal information: “We never want to know your name or who you are.”
Huffman elaborated on the need for this verification initiative, stating, “To keep Reddit human and to meet evolving regulatory requirements, we are going to need a little more information.” Reddit is serious about protecting user privacy. Simultaneously, the platform stands ready to comply with any new legislation that would protect children on social media. At least nine states and the U.K. have enacted legislation mandating age verification, which underscores the urgency of Reddit’s new approach.
Protecting users’ anonymity continues to be a foundational principle for Reddit. The platform has established its credibility on the back of an environment where users can say whatever they want without any accountability attached to their names. The more their technology improves, the more the risks of impersonation and misinformation evolve. Reddit is incorporating third-party verification procedures to address these dangers. It has not been in any way afraid to stick to its roots.
Perhaps more importantly, Huffman suggested that Reddit’s financial destiny is in jeopardy thanks to Reddit’s content-sharing agreement with OpenAI. To do this, the platform licenses its user-uploaded content to train competing AI models. With this practice, it muddies its relationship with user data and invites criticism over user privacy. Here’s how Reddit is responding to an AI tech-powered new social media landscape. The platform is taking these challenges head-on and doing so without compromising its dedication to anonymity.
We partner with trusted third-party verification services to keep our users safe. This partnership increases overall site interaction trust, making a more positive experience from the beginning. This action is part of a larger trend on social media toward prioritizing user safety and authenticity.