Reddit CEO Steve Huffman is standing by Reddit’s decision to block companies from scraping the site without an AI agreement.

Last week, 404 Media noticed that search engines that weren’t Google were no longer listing recent Reddit posts in results. This was because Reddit updated its Robots Exclusion Protocol (txt file) to block bots from scraping the site. The file reads: “Reddit believes in an open Internet, but not the misuse of public content.” Since the news broke, OpenAI announced SearchGPT, which can show recent Reddit results.

The change came a year after Reddit began its efforts to stop free scraping, which Huffman initially framed as an attempt to stop AI companies from making money off of Reddit content for free. This endeavor also led Reddit to begin charging for API access (the high pricing led to many third-party Reddit apps closing).

In an interview with The Verge today, Huffman stood by the changes that led to Google temporarily being the only search engine able to show recent discussions from Reddit. Reddit and Google signed an AI training deal in February said to be worth $60 million a year. It’s unclear how much Reddit’s OpenAI deal is worth.

Huffman said:

Without these agreements, we don’t have any say or knowledge of how our data is displayed and what it’s used for, which has put us in a position now of blocking folks who haven’t been willing to come to terms with how we’d like our data to be used or not used.

“[It’s been] a real pain in the ass to block these companies,” Huffman told The Verge.

  • stevedidwhat_infosec
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    2 months ago

    You’re ignoring the idea that they could still be working on a way to restore content and haven’t completed that process yet

    Or that they could start feeding your archived (not cached) data directly to the AI companies anyway for a price

    IMO, you can win by jamming your “transmissions” with noise. It’s easier to hide in noise as noise than it Is to be silent IMO. Muddy the waters as it were

    • finley@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 months ago

      You’re ignoring the idea that they could still be working on a way to restore content and haven’t completed that process yet

      there’s no evidence to suggest this, though.

      • stevedidwhat_infosec
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        2 months ago

        Content is absolutely archived and they have financial incentive to restore the quality of their “knowledge base”

        That’s a fair amount of circumstance and motivation to support my idea, regardless of tangible evidence

        • finley@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 months ago

          Motivation and circumstance, absent actual evidence, does not make for a convincing argument.

            • finley@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              2 months ago

              No, it just means that they are no more than ideas at this point

              • stevedidwhat_infosec
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                2 months ago

                Right, which means it can be fairly considered when discussing the real crux of the issue with AI and big tech companies right now, which is the monetization of other peoples content.

                If we’re discussing this, we should be looking at whether or not companies are doing this, given they have motive and specific, relevant circumstance to enact such behavior.

                Lack of evidence means you need to investigate for said evidence. It does not mean you should not investigate. Privacy advocates, members of any org/cert with an ethics statement should be blowing the whistle on any kind of activity that would mean a users data is not being deleted upon their request, especially considering reddits global usage.

                • finley@lemm.ee
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  2 months ago

                  By all means investigate, I’m just saying there has yet to be presented any actual evidence. I look forward to seeing whatever you may discover.