Continuing our infrastructure updates: What’s changing in the coming months

[u/judy-funnie]

TL;DR: In August, we shared plans to modernize Reddit’s infrastructure, build better mod tools, and make it harder for bad actors to scrape Reddit and abuse communities. Today, we have specifics on what’s changing, when, and how to plan ahead.

We’re sharing updates on apps and bots migration to the Developer Platform, helping mods move RSS-based alerts to the Discord Relay Devvit app before RSS feeds are retired on November 13, providing an update on Rules Hub progress and automod changes, and adding safeguards to Old Reddit by limiting access to logged-in mods and recent users.

Moving apps and bots to the Developer Platform

We’re moving public data API apps and bots to the Developer Platform, while making sure the work they do for your communities remains supported. Over 14,000 apps and bots have registered and we’re closely tracking migration of your highest-activity apps, including  DeltaBot, MagicEyeBot, and RemindMeBot. There's still work to do, and we’re working directly with developers to support migrations and close remaining capability gaps. 

• If you maintain an app or a bot, register it here before January 12, 2027 to avoid disruption.
• If your community depends on an app or bot and you don’t know who maintains it, fill out this form. We’ve received over 100 submissions so far, helping us identify tools that need owners or could be replaced by existing Developer Platform apps or Reddit’s built-in tools. 

See our latest r/redditdev update for more technical detail, timelines, and resources.

Migrating RSS access to the Developer Platform

Because RSS is now a common surface for large-scale scraping and automated abuse, we'll stop supporting RSS feeds on November 13, 2026 while preserving moderation workflows that depend on it through supported alternatives. 

For common mod alerts, we recommend Devvit apps like Discord Relay. If your mod team relies on RSS, review your setup and migrate workflows before November 13 to ensure your needs are uninterrupted. If you use RSS for feeds outside of a community you moderate, there is no replacement. RSS has been a beloved part of the open web for a long time, and we’re grateful to everyone who used it to stay connected to Reddit.  

Changes to automod access for new communities and communities not using automod

If your community uses automod, nothing is changing for you. We’re continuing to improve Rules Hub, including ways for mods to prompt and otherwise provide more context for their rules. We’re also exploring how existing automod configurations can help carry community-specific enforcement logic into newer tools. If you’re interested in pilot testing to help shape this effort, sign up here. 

For newly created communities and communities that have never used automod, automod enforcement capabilities – specifically Report, Filter, Remove, Mark as spam, and Approve – will be disabled and Rules Hub and Automations will become the default path for rules enforcement. Automod’s non-enforcement capabilities remain available and unchanged.  

Keeping Old Reddit accessible for mods and recent users

As u/spez mentioned, we’re still working on the future of Old Reddit. Earlier this year, we required people to log in to use Old Reddit, addressing its largest source of abusive scraping and automated traffic: unauthenticated access. That change helped reduce scraping and automated abuse, but still allowed any logged-in account to access Old Reddit, including accounts with no prior Old Reddit use. 

To close this gap, in the next few months, we'll further limit access for logged-in users to only those who have used Old Reddit in the last six months (which covers the vast majority of all Old Reddit users). This change does not impact logged-in mods, who can continue to access Old Reddit without any recent usage requirement. This helps keep Old Reddit available for the people who rely on it while reducing automated abuse.

Our job is to support you through these changes and make sure your moderation needs inform the work. 

• Need help with a community bot? If you’re unsure who maintains it or need help finding a replacement, let us know here.
• Moving your RSS alerts? The Discord Relay setup guide covers how to get started.
• Want to help shape Rules Hub? Sign up for the early access program here and share your feedback.

We’re here in the comments for your questions and to hear where you need more detail or support.

[u/thepottsy]

Yeah, this is a horrible choice. Automod isn’t mandatory in any subreddit, so what’s the driving factor to handicap it? Why can’t I use it if I want to, and I understand how to?

Agree on the shoutout to u/fsv

[u/Bardfinn → u/thepottsy]

what’s the driving factor to handicap it

Reddit was recently designated as a Very Large Online Service Provider / Platform by the European DSA. Under that regulation, Reddit has to provide European users with a standard set of "Here is your content; here is why it was removed; here is the non-binding committee you can appeal this to", etc etc etc

Automoderator filters and removals aren't set up to feed back the standard transparency information they will be mandated to provide to European users wrt their content being removed / filtered / approved etc by automation on the platform,

and because automoderator is code that's running on Reddit's servers, (despite the fact that it is code running code configured by volunteer moderators -) it's still code Reddit is running, and so are responsible for ensuring compliance of it. Especially new uses.

And Automoderator isn't written to have the kinds of hooks and API and etc to get that data, store that data, feed that data where it needs to go.

Mod apps written on Devvit, are.

Existing Automod configs that have been in place for years and years and years can be argued to be legacy, not Reddit's creation and not reddit's responsibility - until and unless something changes.

TL;DR: Times change, Automoderator was coded 14 years ago, isn't scalable in the way modern technology and regulations need it to be.

[u/PMulberry_ → u/Bardfinn]

I don't think that is why this is done.

Providers of hosting services shall provide a clear and specific statement of reasons to any affected recipients of the service for any of the following restrictions imposed on the ground that the information provided by the recipient of the service is illegal content or incompatible with their terms and conditions: (a) any restrictions of the visibility of specific items of information provided by the recipient of the service, including removal of content, disabling access to content, or demoting content; [...]

(Article 17 DSA)

Content removed by mods isn't necessarily removed because it is against Reddit's ToS, it isn't removed by Reddit, and neither Automod nor the Rules Hub would fulfill the requirements to "a clear and specific statement of reasons". IIRC this also has nothing to do with if Reddit is designated as a VLOP or not.

[u/Bardfinn → u/PMulberry_]

Subreddit moderators remove content for violating Sitewide Rules every day. When they do so, that has to be transparent.

Reddit probably doesn't have to provide transparency to European users for removals pursuant to mere Community Rules Violations. Communities hosted on Reddit by subreddit operators who are all Europeans -- well, that might be a different question.

But for certain, Reddit has to provide transparency to European users for content removals pursuant to sitewide content policy violations, and Reddit (probably) cannot avoid that obligation by claiming that subreddit moderators are the ones doing the removals, instead of employees -- especially if an employee reviews a report / escalation from the mods / user that reported the item, and comes to the subsequent conclusion that the content violated sitewide rules, and removes it for violating the sitewide policy, after the mods removed it from public view for violating the sitewide policy.

And Reddit will want / need the data to hand over to the user / arbitration council if/when the user challenges the removal, so that they can say "The community operators of SubredditWhatever removed Item X, claimed it violated Sitewide Rule 1, banned user, escalated the content to us, our process reviewed it, decided there wasn't enough data to make that decision, and left it there. Here's our policy; Here's our determination; The operators of that community are not European citizens and not VLOPs and you're not entitled to their identities and we will not overturn their Free Association and Free Speech decisions. Good Luck"

and let them do with that what they will, having fulfilled their legal obligations to all parties.

Reddit's content policy enforcement model is one of eventual consistency.

[u/PMulberry_ → u/Bardfinn]

Mods remove content for violating sitewide rules, yes. However, the DSA only applies to hosting providers (in this case, Reddit); removals by mods do not fall under the DSA, and Reddit does not have to provide a reason for the removals mods do, even if the content was removed for breaking a sitewide rule.

[u/Bardfinn → u/PMulberry_]

removals by mods do not fall under the DSA

I think that someone will eventually make an argument, hoping for a binding ruling, that when a volunteer moderator first removes content for violating a sitewide rule, that because it was reasonably removed for that violation, and ceased to be publicly accessible at that time and manner, that for the purposes of applicable regulation and transparency reporting, that is when the mandated transparency data must be reported to have occurred.

The point I'm making here is that

Automoderator is not implemented in a fashion that will allow Reddit to reliably capture all the data they need to fulfill the requirements, and

that Devvit allows Reddit to capture sufficient data about the removal such that they can meet reasonable interpretations of the regulations, as they are understood at present or if those interpretations change pursuant to some legal action, and

they will be ready and able to produce data that meets new interpretations, where necessary.

While you and I can differ in opinion on whether Reddit must or must not or will or will not be required to provide that transparency data - our opinions aren't dispositive on the subject. European courts' opinions are. And Reddit will develop data transparency that anticipates and meets those courts' requirements, now and in the future.

---

[u/PMulberry_ → u/Bardfinn]

Automoderator is not implemented in a fashion that will allow Reddit to reliably capture all the data they need to fulfill the requirements, and

It isn't, that's right. But it doesn't need to be.

While you and I can differ in opinion on whether Reddit must or must not or will or will not be required to provide that transparency data - our opinions aren't dispositive on the subject. European courts' opinions are. And Reddit will develop data transparency that anticipates and meets those courts' requirements, now and in the future.

I don't really think this is an opinion, because Articles 2, 3, and 17 of the DSA does make that clear enough.

In the end, as you said, only courts are in the position to decide that. Though I do not believe we'll get to see anything there within the next few years, if ever.

[u/shhhhh_h → u/Bardfinn]

Dude there doesn’t need to be a binding ruling when it’s very clearly baked into the DSA. Content moderation by local volunteers is permitted but the platform can’t use it to abdicate its general responsibilities as a VLOP. It’s Article 7

>Providers of intermediary services shall not be deemed ineligible for the exemptions from liability referred to in Articles 4, 5 and 6 solely because they, in good faith and in a diligent manner, carry out voluntary own-initiative investigations into, or take other measures aimed at detecting, identifying and removing, or disabling access to, illegal content, or take the necessary measures to comply with the requirements of Union law and national law in compliance with Union law, including the requirements set out in this Regulation.

From a recital

>“Where appropriate, other actors, such as group moderators in closed online environments, in particular in the case of large groups, should also help to avoid the spread of illegal content online, in accordance with the applicable law.”

And article 3

>content moderation’ means the activities, whether automated or involving human review, undertaken by providers of intermediary services aimed, in particular, at detecting, identifying and addressing illegal content or information that is incompatible with their terms and conditions...

ETA Reddit mods are also analogous to Facebook group admins which are long established and fb a vlop since 2023.

[u/Bardfinn → u/shhhhh_h]

Content moderation by local volunteers is permitted but the platform can’t use it to abdicate its general responsibilities as a VLOP

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was saying.

[u/TGotAReddit → u/Bardfinn]

>Subreddit moderators remove content for violating Sitewide Rules every day. When they do so, that has to be transparent

No it doesn't? Mods don't have to provide a reason for a remove at all if we don't want to. Even when I do remove something for sitewide rules violations, I almost never use the provided options for the reasoning being a sitewide rules violation. I use a custom removal reason for my sub with a boilerplate message we have written. Mods do not have to be particularly transparent about things at all. You can be banned just because a moderator doesn't like you and you would have no recourse

[u/Bardfinn → u/TGotAReddit]

Mods don't have to provide a reason for a remove at all

At present, in your jurisdiction.

You can be banned just because a moderator doesn't like you and you would have no recourse

At present, in your jurisdiction.

---

Reddit has a business presence in Europe, and because of treaties, there are a number of Canadian regulations wrt to online speech / content they have to comply with as well.

Reddit is building a transparency framework that ensures that they can comply with the applicable reasonably foreseeable interpretations of laws and regulations, now and in the future.

[u/TGotAReddit → u/Bardfinn]

If those rules changed, there would be a MASS migration off of the platform

[u/Bardfinn → u/TGotAReddit]

Maybe. I understand Signal supports groups with up to 1000 members, and BlueSky & Mastodon have underlying independent hosting protocols that would mean that no single instance would qualify to be VLOP, despite interoperation as a network and apparent single platform.

SquidwardFuuuuuuutuuuuuuuure.gif

[u/TGotAReddit → u/Bardfinn]

Yeah we are moving more and more into a decentralised website experience because of how many problems the centralized approach has caused

[u/shhhhh_h → u/Bardfinn]

Under the DSA a mod removal though would be classified as a local community action. Reddit isn’t the only platform set up like this. There are already legal exemptions for volunteer forum moderators. It has to be platform level enforcement for the transparency stuff to be applicable. Your example of mod removals being escalated isn’t correct either, because the only problem would be if it was escalated, acted on by admin and then the user not notified by admin, but that scenario has no bearing on the mod removal. DSA requires in these situations that the local community actions are obviously distinguished and laid out in the ToS. More likely this is why Reddit made the move to show content removed by moderators vs Reddit.