On Wednesday, Reddit announced a new strategy to combat automated accounts that have long plagued the platform. The move follows in the footsteps of Digg, which recently shut down due to bot overload.

The company is introducing a 'human verification' system for accounts suspected of being bots. This won’t apply to all users but will be triggered by suspicious activity or technical markers. Once flagged, an account must prove it’s human through third-party tools such as passkeys or biometric services like Face ID.

Apart from fighting the proliferation of bots, Reddit hopes to maintain a balance between transparency and user anonymity. Co-founder Steve Huffman notes that verification is aimed at confirming human presence without revealing personal identity, preserving Reddit's unique culture of pseudonymity.

The initiative comes amid growing concerns over bot abuse across social media platforms. According to Cloudflare, by 2027, bots are expected to outnumber humans online. Reddit’s challenge is twofold: remove malicious bots and prevent genuine users from feeling like mere nodes in a vast AI network.

While the move aims for decentralization and privacy, it also acknowledges that current solutions might not be perfect. Huffman suggests that long-term solutions should be individualized and private, without requiring ID verification—though this remains to be seen as Reddit implements its new system.