Reddit, the online platform organized into thematic communities, has announced a plan to combat bots and will ask the owners of accounts that look suspicious to prove that they are managed by real people.
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman announced the company's newest plan to combat bots, and one of the measures refers to the fact that some accounts will be required to prove that they are real people behind them and not “bots” online, Engadget writes.
Huffman explained that in “rare” cases, accounts that appear “suspicious” will be prompted to go through additional Face ID and password checks. More sophisticated verification methods are also considered for the future.
Reddit tries to maintain a tricky balance when it comes to verification, though. The head of the company explains that it wants for some accounts to confirm that the user is a person, but NOT to verify the real identity, which would “erode” the anonymity for which the platform is known
As part of the new policy, Reddit will also add a “tag” for existing “good” bots on the platform and make it easier to report “bad” bots. On Reddit, “good” bots provide useful information and contribute to moderation, while “bad” bots are those who post spam and try to influence users' opinions, sometimes through propaganda techniques.
Reddit has more than 500 million accounts, and the average number of users who log in daily is 121 million, according to data from demandsage.com.
