Reddit puts logged in experience first as Google AI hits traffic
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman announced plans to restrict access to content for logged-out users to combat data scraping and mitigate the impact of AI search engines on traffic. The company is facing declining referral traffic from Google and is taking legal action against AI firms to protect its data assets.
Why it matters
This reflects the ongoing tension between social media platforms and AI companies regarding data ownership and the future of web traffic monetization.
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman outlined a plan on Thursday to mandate sign-ins for most content to deter data scraping on the social media platform after he blamed Google’s AI search features for a decline in referral traffic. Shares of Reddit fell 18% in extended trading after Huffman warned that total daily active unique visitors could fall by a low double-digit percentage in the fourth quarter from about 130 million if referral traffic continues to fall. Search engine referrals to Reddit decreased by more than one million on average each week during October, he said. In the US, DAUq fell 2% to 50.7 million, marking its first decline since Reddit went public in 2024.
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