AI impersonation scandal pushes Reddit to consider user verification measures.
Reddit is preparing to introduce identity verification measures following a major controversy over AI bots impersonating humans on its platform.
The move comes after researchers released more than 1,700 AI-generated comments on the ‘Change My View’ subreddit, posing as various personas including abuse survivors and anti-Black Lives Matter supporters.
The large-scale experiment, designed to test AI’s persuasiveness, left many users alarmed and raised serious concerns about trust and authenticity on the site.
The company, which condemned the incident as an ‘improper and highly unethical experiment,’ filed a formal complaint against the university responsible.
However, Reddit faces a broader and more persistent issue: generative AI bots infiltrating the platform for purposes ranging from scientific studies to political manipulation.
To counter this, CEO Steve Huffman announced that Reddit would soon collaborate with third-party services to verify whether users are human — a major shift for a platform built on anonymity.
‘To keep Reddit human and meet evolving regulatory requirements, we are going to need a little more information,’ Huffman explained. While the company says it will not seek names or deeply personal data, age and humanity checks will become necessary in certain cases.
This comes amid growing regulatory pressure globally, with some jurisdictions already mandating age verification on social media.
Despite Huffman’s assurances that anonymity remains essential to Reddit, privacy advocates have voiced concerns. Opponents of ID checks warn that verifying user identities could pose serious risks, especially if authorities demand access to sensitive user data.
Examples like Meta’s controversial handover of private messages in Nebraska — which resulted in felony charges in an abortion-related case — highlight how anonymity breaches could have severe consequences.
Reddit insists it will rely on external partners to collect only the essential data and will continue resisting unreasonable demands from public or private authorities. As AI’s influence grows, the company faces the challenge of balancing user anonymity with the need to protect its platform from manipulation.
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