Reddit Restricts 'Old Reddit' to Recent Users and Sunsets RSS Feeds to Fight AI Scraping

Reddit plans to restrict access to its legacy desktop interface, commonly known as "Old Reddit," limiting the 21-year-old design exclusively to logged-in accounts that have visited it within the last six months, according to a report from Engadget (https://www.engadget.com/2273661/reddit-imposes-new-restrictions-on-old-reddit/).

In an update posted to the r/modnews community, the company stated that the upcoming change will take effect over the next few months. Under the new policy, newly created accounts will be blocked from accessing Old Reddit entirely, and existing accounts that have not used the classic layout in the preceding six months will also lose access. Reddit noted that logged-in community moderators will remain exempt from the recent-usage requirement.

The move follows a restriction introduced last month that required visitors to log in before viewing Old Reddit. Reddit has cited the classic layout as a significant surface for automated web scrapers harvesting user data to train artificial intelligence models. According to the company, the initial login mandate reduced automated abuse, prompting the rollout of tighter activity thresholds.

Reddit has not committed to discontinuing Old Reddit permanently. Chief executive Steve Huffman previously stated that his preferred direction would be to "recreate the UI, if not the guts, including the HTML+CSS itself, on a modern foundation so it can live on."

Alongside the interface restrictions, Reddit announced it will shut down support for RSS feeds on November 13. The company described the syndication feeds as another primary conduit for large-scale automated scraping. The decisions follow a multi-year effort by Reddit to restrict automated access to its content, which previously included application programming interface (API) changes that forced third-party clients offline and a broader shift toward a more tightly controlled developer platform.