Reddit acknowledged that RSS has played a longstanding role in how people access content across the web, but said the system is no longer compatible with how it wants to manage automated use of its platform.
For moderators who rely on RSS for alerts, Reddit is directing them to its Discord Relay app. That option does not extend to people who use Reddit feeds outside communities they moderate.
“If you use RSS for feeds outside of a community you moderate, there is no replacement,” Reddit wrote.
The RSS shutdown is one part of a wider effort to reduce uncontrolled access to Reddit data. The company also plans to discontinue its public API in March 2027.
Reddit will stop accepting new public API requests on October 31. Beginning January 12, it will start removing access from apps that have not registered for the company’s Developer Platform.
More than 14,000 apps and bots have already signed up to make that transition, according to Reddit. The company has created a $1 million fund that will pay $1,000 to each eligible app that completes the move.
The API changes are likely to affect services that rely on programmatic access to Reddit conversations, including research tools, social listening products and AI applications. Once public access ends, services seeking Reddit data outside the Developer Platform may need separate arrangements with the company.
Reddit is also narrowing access to Old Reddit, the text-heavy version of the site that remains popular among some longtime users and moderators.
The classic interface already requires users to sign in. Over the coming months, Reddit says it will further restrict access to moderators and people who have used Old Reddit within the previous six months. The company said that group accounts for the large majority of current Old Reddit users.
Reddit attributed those limits to scraping and automated traffic as well.
The company is simultaneously changing how moderation tools work for some communities. New subreddits and communities that have never used Automod will no longer be able to use it to remove, approve or filter posts. Reddit instead wants those communities to use Rules Hub and Automations for rule enforcement.
Some moderators pushed back against the announced changes, particularly the loss of RSS and limits around Automod. “RSS is the only way I find out about posts in subs like this one,” one moderator wrote.
Reddit first outlined parts of the infrastructure shift in August, when it described changes to Automod and its broader effort to reduce scraping. The latest announcement now gives firm deadlines for several of those changes.
The company’s decision also comes as Reddit places tighter controls around access to the user-generated discussions that have become increasingly valuable to AI companies and other data consumers.
Reddit’s second-quarter results showed that revenue outside advertising increased 24% year over year to $43 million, a category that includes its data licensing business.
By retiring RSS, closing the public API and placing more of its tools behind registered access, Reddit is moving away from some of the open mechanisms that previously allowed people and software to monitor the site without going through the company’s newer platform infrastructure.
This analysis is based on reporting from TNW.
Image courtesy of Unsplash.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
