Reddit Tests Login Mandate Amid Falling Search Traffic

Reddit is moving toward requiring user accounts for site access, a change that ends a two decade tradition of open reading. CEO Steve Huffman announced the plan on Thursday while releasing the company's third quarter financial results. He stated that the platform will shift to a primarily logged in experience. Initial testing will occur in select markets outside the United States during the fourth quarter.

The decision follows a series of recent changes to the site's public access. In late June, Reddit required logins for its Old Reddit interface, citing abusive scraping. On September 30, the company announced the end of support for RSS feeds, which will cease functioning on November 13. These moves signal a tightening control over how third parties and casual visitors interact with the platform's content.

Huffman identified four main reasons for the new policy. He said a logged in site improves user experience, benefits the advertising business, aligns with safety regulations, and protects data. He noted that most unauthorized access currently occurs through logged out experiences. In a separate interview with CNBC, he added a fifth factor: declining referral traffic from Google.

The drop in search traffic is a key financial concern for the company. Reddit reported third quarter revenue of $895 million, which exceeded analyst estimates of $878 million. However, U.S. daily active users fell by 2% year over year to 50.7 million. Huffman warned that total daily users could drop by a low double digit percentage from the current base of 130 million if search referrals continue to decline in the fourth quarter.

The policy specifically targets the growing segment of visitors who do not sign in. A first quarter shareholder letter filed with the SEC showed that logged in users grew by 7% year over year, while logged out users grew by 26%. Huffman said in February that the company planned to stop reporting these distinct metrics later this year. The current strategy nudges the faster growing anonymous audience toward creating accounts.

Details on what visitors without accounts will see remain undecided. Huffman told CNBC that the company is still determining the scope of logged out visibility. He acknowledged in his post that keeping the front page and posts reached via search engines or external links accessible to visitors is important. This preserves the path for casual users who find threads through search queries rather than browsing the site directly.

Rhode Island residents who use the site are subject to state privacy laws if they create an account. The Rhode Island Data Transparency and Privacy Protection Act took effect on January 1. It applies to for profit businesses in the state that processed data from at least 35,000 customers in the prior year. Customers can confirm, access, correct, or delete their data and opt out of targeted advertising.

The law grants sole enforcement authority to Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, meaning residents cannot sue directly under the statute. Complaints must be filed through the attorney general's office. State lawmakers previously considered social media regulation through bills H 7953 and S 2968, but both died in committee in April. The next legislative session opens in January 2027.

The next scheduled change for the site is the RSS shutoff on November 13. Following that, the login tests will begin in international markets this quarter. The company posts its quarterly materials and updates on its investor website.