Reddit is introducing a new level of verification for suspicious accounts to prove that a human is actually behind them.
Reddit has been battling spam and bot armies for years. In a detailed article, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman explains how the platform intends to take up the fight against this in future.
The core message reads strangely at first glance: humans are just as welcome as bots – but the latter are only welcome if they are clearly recognizable as such. Accounts that pretend to be human users and manipulate discussions should find it more difficult to get away with their behavior.
To this end, Reddit is planning a new verification level that goes beyond traditional captchas. According to Huffman, “suspicious accounts”, i.e. those that resemble automated or coordinated networks, are particularly affected.
How Reddit wants to filter out suspicious accounts
TheReddit CEOis still vague, but at least outlines the basic principle: An internal system evaluates the behavior of accounts and marks those that are highly likely to act like bots.
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Signs of this include a high rate at which posts are created and published – sometimes even identical ones across many subreddits – or “coordinated upvote patterns”. These accounts are to undergo additional checks in future.
Whatpasskeys are and how you can create them is summarized in our how-to for all platforms.
Huffman makes it clear that there will still be legitimate bot accounts – for moderation or archiving, for example. However, they should be clearly labeled and not imitate human users.The aim is therefore less a complete bot ban than the obligation to use a “name tag”: Anyone who plays along as a bot should do so openly. A clear name requirement, which was briefly circulated as a rumor, will not be introduced, nor will global mandatory verification.
