According to a report by The Washington Post, Reddit is considering cutting off Google and Bing’s search crawlers if it fails to reach agreements with generative AI companies to pay for its data. Initially, Reddit denied this claim, stating that nothing was changing. However, after the Post corrected its story, the only major detail that had changed was that users would no longer need to log in to Reddit. Instead, if agreements are not reached, Reddit may block search crawlers, which means that Reddit posts would not show up in search results.
While Reddit did not explicitly confirm the blocking of crawlers, a Reddit spokesperson mentioned that they had nothing to share on the topic at the moment. This potential change could have significant implications for users trying to access Reddit through search engines. It is worth noting that during previous Reddit protests related to API pricing changes, many subreddits went dark, causing Reddit results to lead to private communities and creating inconvenience for users. By potentially blocking search crawlers, Reddit aims to address the issue of AI companies using its data without compensation.
The Washington Post’s report also highlights how numerous news organizations, including more than 535, have chosen to block their content from being scraped by companies like OpenAI. This action aims to prevent these companies from using their content to train AI models such as ChatGPT. Overall, if Reddit proceeds with blocking search crawlers, it could impact the accessibility of Reddit content through search engines and change the dynamics of AI companies leveraging its data for training purposes.
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