Reddit announced further restrictions on its classic desktop interface, Old Reddit, and said it will end RSS support on November 13. The company cited AI scraping and automated abuse as the reason, saying the recent login requirement for Old Reddit reduced abuse but still allowed any logged-in account to access the classic layout. Under the new policy, only logged-in users who have used Old Reddit within the past six months will retain access; new accounts and inactive users will be barred. Logged-in moderators are exempt from the usage requirement. TechCrunch, however, reported the lookback window as 90 days, a discrepancy not explained by the other sources.
Reddit also confirmed that public API access will end by March 2027, with developers required to register apps by January 12, 2027. The company said RSS feeds have become a common surface for large-scale scraping and suggested moderators migrate to Discord Relay, while acknowledging there is no replacement for non-mod RSS uses. The three reports agree on the overall rationale and timeline, though they differ on the exact Old Reddit usage window. Reddit has not said whether Old Reddit will eventually be shut down entirely, but CEO Steve Huffman has previously said he wants to rebuild it on a modern foundation.