Yesterday, Reddit announced that it will retire RSS feeds on November 13 and phase out legacy public Data API access, with remaining access scheduled to close in March 2027. Reddit says the feeds, which let people follow Reddit through an RSS reader, have become a common route for large-scale scraping and automated abuse. Moderators can move common alerts to apps on Devvit, Reddit’s developer platform; ordinary readers lose the RSS option.
Reddit says more than 14,000 apps and bots have registered as part of the transition as of September 30. It will stop accepting new public API access requests at the end of this month. In mid-January, it will begin removing access for apps and users that have not registered or responded to its outreach. Its $1 million migration program includes $1,000 payments for eligible apps that successfully move, plus free hosting. Developers have a path forward, with Reddit setting the terms for where their software runs.
Google and OpenAI already have separate agreements to access Reddit content. Reddit’s 2024 Google announcement explicitly included using its Data API to display content and train models more efficiently. Its OpenAI agreement provided real-time, structured content for ChatGPT and other products. Approved noncommercial academic projects can still obtain free data through Reddit for Researchers, which uses Google’s BigQuery Analytics Hub.
I’ve written about this distinction in AI content licensing before. Reddit is preserving approved uses while removing tools that also served ordinary readers. For RSS feeds outside communities you moderate, the company says “there is no replacement.”
We’ve been here before. MTV built its early programming around music videos supplied free by record labels, which saw the exposure as promotion. By 1984, MTV was paying major labels cash and advertising time for exclusive rights to selected videos. Early YouTube hosted unlicensed clips from South Park and The Daily Show, helping fuel its copyright battle with Viacom.
Every company needs a Claw strategy. Do you have one?
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it. This work was created with the assistance of various generative AI models.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with AI strategy, implementation and governance, as well as technology, media and marketing. Named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology, he is a bestselling author, covers tech and business for Fox 5’s Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN, and writes the popular daily business blog Think About This. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.