Reddit’s verification will be rare and won’t apply to most users, says CEO Steve Huffman.
Just days after floating the idea of using verification to differentiate human and bot accounts, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on Wednesday announced measures the company will take to execute its plans.
Going forward, Reddit will require non-human accounts to be clearly labelled as such. As part of the move, developers will be allowed to register their automated accounts and receive an “[App]” label.
Reddit, on the other hand, will begin looking for accounts with “fishy behavior” and ask their operators to verify that they are human, Huffman writes in a post.
The company will use third-party tools for verification. In most regions, users will be able to complete it using passkeys or third-party biometric services, such as Sam Altman’s World ID. In regions like the UK and Australia, however, regulations require users to produce government-issued IDs.
During the verification process, the company says it won’t access a user’s real-world identity or expose their Reddit username or account activity to the third party. Anonymity will continue to be Reddit’s differentiating factor.
“Our aim is to confirm there is a person behind the account, not who that person is. The goal is to increase transparency of what is what on Reddit while preserving the anonymity that makes Reddit unique. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice one for the other,” Huffman said, adding that the verification will be rare and won’t apply to most users.
Reddit already blocks an average of 100.000 nefarious accounts each day, and those that don’t pass the new verification system may be restricted. As for AI-generated content, Huffman said the platform will continue to allow it so long as it is posted by a real human.
“Using AI to write is part of how people will communicate in the future (albeit annoying), so our current focus is to ensure there is a real, live human behind the accounts you’re seeing,” he said.
However, this stance may change with time. “Things are changing quickly, and we’ll adapt as best we can,” Hoffman added. Close to 15% of posts on the platform are already AI-generated, a study from last year revealed.
