Reddit is weighing identification verification strategies to fight its bot drawback

There might be yet one more step required earlier than creating an account and posting on Reddit sooner or later. In response to 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 affirm 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 approach 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 take a look at one thing, so that truly simply proves there’s an individual there or will get you fairly far.”

Moreover these passkey strategies that use biometrics knowledge, Huffman mentioned there are different choices like counting on third-party companies 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 companies.

Current 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 does not sound like Reddit has landed on how one can confirm its customers’ human identification but, however Huffman did emphasize that the platform nonetheless needs to prioritize anonymity for its customers. Nevertheless, verifying humanity via identifiable and private knowledge 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 identify however we do need to know you are an individual,” Huffman mentioned. “It will be an evolution for us for some time, and possibly each platform to search out the correct center floor right here.”

Reddit co-founder and former govt 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 performed concerning the faux 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 crew and can replace the story after we hear again.