Reddit Further Restricts Access to 'Old Reddit' to Curb AI Scraping

Reddit is tightening restrictions on who can access "Old Reddit," the platform's classic interface, as part of a broader effort to combat scraping and automated bot traffic, the company said.

The platform had already begun requiring users to log in to access Old Reddit, and the company says that within the "next few months," users will need to be logged in and meet additional requirements to continue using the legacy interface.

The move is aimed at curbing the activity of AI bots and automated scrapers that have increasingly targeted Reddit's content, extracting data at scale for purposes such as training artificial intelligence models. Reddit has taken a more assertive stance toward unauthorized scraping of its platform in recent periods.

Old Reddit remains popular among a subset of long-time users who prefer its simpler, less algorithmically curated layout compared with the redesigned modern version of the site. The additional access restrictions may affect how these users interact with the platform going forward, even as the company frames the change as necessary for protecting its content from automated extraction.

Reddit has not specified the exact additional requirements users will need to meet beyond being logged in, nor has it provided a precise date for when the changes will take full effect. The company's broader efforts to restrict automated access reflect ongoing tension across the internet between platforms seeking to protect their data and AI developers seeking to use it for training.