Reddit Signals Upcoming Changes for Legacy Desktop Experience

Reddit disclosed upcoming "changes" for its legacy desktop interface, old.reddit.com, in a blog post released today. The company stated that these modifications are intended to safeguard its platform, business operations, and user base from malicious scraping activities and spam.

The social media giant emphasized that old.reddit.com, originally developed 21 years ago, is a significant source of concern. In the immediate future, Reddit will maintain its requirement for users to be logged in to access the old platform. The company is also working to transition essential bots and moderator workflows to its contemporary system.

These measures are designed to alleviate problematic behavior and provide time for Reddit to strategically plan more complex subsequent actions. This announcement follows a July decision by Reddit to mandate logins for old.reddit.com users. At that time, a Reddit representative indicated that the logged-out experience on the old platform contributed significantly to abusive scraping and automated traffic.

Today's blog post reiterated these concerns, specifically identifying old.reddit.com as a factor enabling unauthorized content scraping. Reddit asserted that these impending changes would bolster its underlying infrastructure, ensuring the platform's capacity to support vibrant communities for future generations and preserve its distinctive human element.

When questioned by Ars Technica regarding the specifics of these "changes," Reddit spokesperson Rosa Kim stated the company is "exploring different options" but did not offer further details. Kim also mentioned that a definitive timeline is not yet established, but Reddit intends to collaborate directly with moderators, developers, and communities reliant on its systems, providing regular updates.

This development aligns with previous remarks from a Reddit employee in June, who, while acknowledging CEO Steve Huffman's past commitments to support the old site as long as it had users, noted that its indefinite existence could not be guaranteed.

Reddit has previously undertaken efforts to counteract unauthorized scraping, including legal action against entities such as Perplexity and Anthropic, blocking the Internet Archive, and restricting crawler access for search engines without existing agreements. In 2023, Reddit controversially began charging for API access, a move that primarily led to the closure of many third-party Reddit applications. The initial justification for these API restrictions was to prevent generative AI companies from utilizing Reddit data to train large language models without compensation.

Building on these earlier API adjustments, Reddit today announced plans to restrict new requests for API access and require third-party applications to transition to Reddit’s Developer Platform. The company's blog post regarding the API changes expressed a vision for an ecosystem where all legitimate and trusted automation on Reddit operates within a framework that allows for consistent support and policy enforcement.

According to a report from The Verge, developers seeking to create third-party Reddit mobile applications will still need to request API access, and Reddit has not yet specified a date for when all applications must be on the Developer Platform. Kim informed The Verge that this transition will apply to "all API apps except the ones we explicitly grant exceptions to."