Reddit users may soon need to prove they are human as platform battles bots

It’s been assumed for quite some time that Reddit is infested with bots, to the point that the dead internet theory has been tossed around aplenty (a theory that proposes the majority of what’s seen on the internet is created by bots). For anyone who has been using Reddit for the last decade, the decline of the quality of content is palpable, a subject continually discussed on and off the site.

Recently, a research team at the University of Zurich ran an extensive experiment designed to see just how persuasive AI behaving like a human can be. They posted close to 2K comments in the r/changemyview subreddit, using polemic identities and speech to see how easily views can be changed by a swarm of bots spouting controversial ideas in lock-step. Reddit was likely none too happy being outed as so easily manipulated while proving the dead internet theory possible on its site, something users have been complaining about for many moons, along with the press.

It’s up to Reddit’s users to solve its bot problem, apparently

That’s right, you’ll get to jump through hoops to prove you’re not a bot

Well, now that the University of Zurich has properly embarrassed Reddit and proved how easily it is manipulated with bots, Reddit says it’s finally going to do something about its bot problem. That’s right, Reddit is looking to tighten user verification by requiring users to prove they are, in fact, human (via Techcrunch), where Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman has detailed in a post on the site that third parties will soon be used to help verify a user is real. At the very least, Huffman has confirmed that your real name will still not be needed for an account, though age verification may be necessary in certain regions.

Thanks to its own inability to fight bots, it’s sounding like Reddit will soon require proof of your humanity just to have an account. When the quality of the content has been on a decline for the last decade, with a sharp jump recently when it killed support for third-party clients, and a university just proved the dead internet theory real to the point Reddit is threatening to sue the school that showed how easily the platform is manipulated, will anyone bother to jump through Reddit’s hoops to prove they are human just to take part in what currently feels like a never-ending parade of bots and bans?

You’d think the declining content quality and awful moderation would be higher on the list of things to fix, but nope, forcing you to go out of your way to prove you’re human is clearly much more important.