Reddit says it has to cut back access to ‘Old Reddit’ because of AI bots

Reddit is tightening access to Old Reddit and phasing out RSS/public API use as it responds to AI scraping and automated abuse, signaling that major platforms are increasingly treating data access as a controlled enterprise asset rather than an open utility. For CIOs and technology leaders, this underscores a broader shift toward stricter authentication, reduced public data exposure, and higher dependency on vendor-approved developer platforms, which can affect integrations, monitoring workflows, and user or community tools that rely on legacy access methods.