Reddit is weighing id verification strategies to fight its bot drawback

There may very well be yet another step required earlier than creating an account and posting on Reddit sooner or later. In keeping with Reddit’s CEO, Steve Huffman, the social media platform is exploring other ways to confirm a person is human and never a bot. When requested by the TBPN podcast how one can verify that it is a human utilizing Reddit, Huffman responded with a number of verification strategies with various levels of heavy-handedness.

“Probably the most light-weight means is with one thing like Face ID or Contact ID,” Huffman mentioned throughout the interview. “They really require a human presence, like a human has to the touch, or do or have a look at one thing, so that truly simply proves there’s an individual there or will get you fairly far.”

In addition to these passkey strategies that use biometrics information, Huffman mentioned there are different choices like counting on third-party providers which are decentralized or do not require ID. On the opposite finish of the spectrum, Huffman additionally talked about extra burdensome choices, like ID-checking providers.

Latest years have introduced an increase in bots flooding social media platforms together with Reddit, the place they’ve even been used to conduct secret experiments. It would not sound like Reddit has landed on how one can confirm its customers’ human id but, however Huffman did emphasize that the platform nonetheless needs to prioritize anonymity for its customers. Nonetheless, verifying humanity by way of identifiable and private information might find yourself as a dealbreaker for Reddit customers who worth the anonymity of the platform.

“A part of our promise for our customers is we do not know your title however we do wish to know you are an individual,” Huffman mentioned. “It will be an evolution for us for some time, and possibly each platform to seek out the suitable center floor right here.”

Reddit co-founder and former government chair, Alexis Ohanian, mentioned on X that Reddit requiring Face ID wasn’t one thing he anticipated however agreed that one thing needed to be carried out in regards to the pretend content material from bots, including that, “I simply do not know how one can promote face-scanning to Redditors and even lurkers.” We reached out to Reddit’s communications staff and can replace the story after we hear again.