Can Reddit Halt the AI Spam Tide?

The increasing prominence of AI-powered search has significantly elevated the value of mentions on Reddit, prompting subreddit moderators to intensify their efforts in identifying and countering brands attempting to exploit the platform.

Earlier this year, a user within a skincare-focused subreddit inquired whether others had experience with a particular hypochlorous acid spray, a common product for acne treatment. Among the numerous responses, a comment from Primary-Taro4254 initially appeared unassuming.

“I haven’t personally tried [that brand] so I can’t fully compare, sorry,” the user stated. “But I have been using a similar hypochlorous acid spray from Honeydew Labs and I’ve honestly really liked it.”

Primary-Taro4254 proceeded to share positive experiences with the spray, noting its effectiveness in reducing skin redness and irritation. The user also highlighted Honeydew Labs’ product specifications, mentioning, “One thing I noticed when comparing products is that Honeydew Labs uses a 0.02% hypochlorous acid concentration and it’s also accepted by the National Eczema Association, which made me feel a bit more confident trying it on sensitive skin.”

However, a deeper investigation into Primary-Taro4254’s Reddit profile unveiled an extensive and enthusiastic endorsement of Honeydew Labs’ hypochlorous acid spray. This promotion wasn't confined to a single thread; similar messages appeared across discussions about unrelated products and in other skincare subreddits. This pattern raised questions about Primary-Taro4254’s affiliation: was it an employee of Honeydew Labs, an ill-conceived marketing tactic by a firm, or perhaps an automated spam account? Soon, a vigilant member of r/SkincareAddiction, a large subreddit boasting over a million weekly visitors, alerted the community, warning them to “be aware of honeydew labs hypochlorous acid/ marketing bots.” Subsequently, a moderator announced that action had been taken against Primary-Taro4254, and posts mentioning Honeydew Labs would now be automatically flagged for moderator review.

Neither Honeydew Labs nor Primary-Taro4254 responded to requests for comment.

Reddit’s significance in how billions interact with the web has grown immensely over recent years. It has evolved from a collection of niche communities, often characterized by a spirited user base, into arguably one of the internet’s most crucial websites. Initially, users appended “reddit” to their search queries to navigate through SEO-laden results, leading Google to prominently feature the site. Now, Reddit holds new importance for brands and marketers: AI chatbots frequently cite its content.

Data compiled for The Verge by Semrush, an SEO company owned by Adobe, revealed that in May, Reddit was the most-cited domain by leading AI tools, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s Gemini, and AI Mode. This surpassed citations from news publishers, academic repositories, and even Wikipedia. Furthermore, AI responses are increasingly influencing the online shopping journey; Semrush also observed a year-over-year increase in Google’s AI Overviews for commercial search queries, such as product research or brand comparisons.

As web traffic increasingly routes through large language models (LLMs) rather than conventional search results pages, a trend Google has embraced, being cited by a chatbot has become paramount. Consequently, numerous startups, brands, and agencies are flocking to Reddit, aiming to promote their offerings in hopes of AI pickup. Marketers are now targeting Reddit, a pseudo-anonymous platform cherished by users for its authenticity and unfiltered opinions, in an attempt to manipulate LLM responses and inject brand-friendly content into AI search results.

However, they must first contend with the platform’s moderators.

Prior to becoming a moderator for r/SkincareAddiction, Maya Adivi was an active user, drawn by the community’s rigorous, science-backed approach to the beauty industry. Instead of basic questions like “What should I do for acne?”, users engaged in detailed discussions and analyses of new scientific studies, driven by genuine passion. While moderating for spam and promotional content has always been part of her role, Adivi notes that today, even a thorough, legitimate study breakdown can be met with suspicion.

In previous years, moderators identified spam or covert promotion through clear indicators: overly enthusiastic reviews, product links containing tracking tags, or before-and-after images identical to those on brand websites. AI search has altered marketing tactics significantly, to the point where some SEO experts suggest brands no longer require backlinks to have their websites cited by a chatbot; a mere mention suffices. A suspected spammer might now post a seemingly innocent question, such as “How does everyone keep track of their skincare routine?” only for it to be followed by a cascade of comments promoting AI skincare applications. Other posts might ask, “I keep seeing ads for this brand. What’s your experience with it?” Suspicious promotional responses often adopt a subtly self-deprecating tone, like “I thought this product would be too aggressive, but it was actually very gentle. Slow and steady wins the race!” These posts frequently use open-ended questions, mimicking how a user might interact with an AI chatbot.

“It’s a lot more subtle, but we’ve become more sophisticated as well,” Adivi remarked.

A brand secretly trying to promote itself becomes ‘persona non grata’

r/SkincareAddiction strictly forbids accounts affiliated with brands from posting. Adivi and her fellow moderators occasionally issue warnings for rule violations, but more often, they automatically ban brands and sock puppet accounts. A brand attempting covert promotion becomes “persona non grata,” as Adivi puts it. She recently uncovered a marketing agency that boasted about “hijacking” r/SkincareAddiction to promote an undisclosed Korean beauty brand and improve its Google ranking; Adivi promptly removed the agency’s Reddit thread and added the brand to the subreddit’s keyword filtering list. Moderators also maintain strict control over sanctioned Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions, ensuring they benefit the community rather than serving as a company’s promotional platform. While traditional SEO emphasized backlinks, the current era of AEO (“answer engine optimization”) or GEO (“generative engine optimization”) sees marketers experimenting broadly, consistently returning to Reddit in their pursuit of visibility.

“With AEO right now, no one knows exactly how to do it, and everyone tells you how important Reddit is,” explained Adivi, who also has a background in marketing.

Google maintains its own strict policies against spam and system manipulation. In an email, Google spokesperson Jennifer Kutz acknowledged the presence of both high and low-quality content on forums like Reddit, mirroring other online formats. Kutz affirmed that Google’s systems are designed to discern helpful from low-quality user-generated content, adding that Google’s AI search features do not prioritize content from any specific site or platform, and Reddit “gets no special preference” in Google’s ranking algorithms.

“There will always be bad actors trying to game the system — in fact, spamming predates the internet — and fighting spam is a core expertise for us,” Kutz communicated to The Verge. “We have strong protections against manipulation across Search, including our AI features, and we’ve kept results 99% spam-free for years.”

Reddit’s emergence as a central figure in search is somewhat ironic, especially given that the company only introduced native tools to help businesses grow their platform presence in 2024. Google has historically factored a website’s “authority” into its search ranking signals. Reddit, with its anonymous users and decentralized moderation, challenges conventional notions of trustworthiness. Its vast repository of user-generated content, much of which has been used to train LLMs, is paradoxically trusted precisely because it appears to originate from an unbiased, collective source.

As Reddit's influence expands, its extensive network of unpaid volunteer moderators finds itself in a unique and powerful position. The communities they meticulously oversee and cultivate are now highly valuable, not only to enthusiasts of topics like skincare and indie music but also to the brands and companies seeking to capitalize on these fandoms. As advertisers and the SEO industry refine their strategies for AI search visibility, new sectors of the internet must grapple with heightened online visibility and the unexpected dynamics it generates.

Concerns about potential LLM-related spam and promotional content are surfacing across a diverse range of subreddits. On r/CleaningTips, a user questioned the necessity of banning product names. Another user warned the popular r/BuyItForLife community that it was being “brigaded by ad bots to skew Google and AI search results.” r/FoodNYC’s rules against self-promotion specifically target brands commenting on older posts. A moderator of r/salestechniques posted a “name and shame” thread, identifying brands accused of astroturfing the subreddit. Reddit itself has acknowledged these new forms of spam. In early July, the company announced it was enhancing its spam detection tools with AI and LLMs to better identify “the highly subtle, coordinated patterns of fake behavior and artificial hype.” As a result, Reddit reported catching 25,000 spammy posts and comments and blocking 23 million spam views daily.

“In Reddit’s 21 years, one constant has been that spam tactics continually evolve as new technologies emerge,” Jared Nelson, senior director of global corporate reputation communications at Reddit, informed The Verge. “Every time bad actors change their playbook, we strengthen ours.”

Nelson refrained from disclosing specific signals used by Reddit’s systems to avoid providing a blueprint for bad actors to circumvent detection. He stated that the company evaluates accounts upon creation, monitors for coordinated manipulation across accounts and conversations, and utilizes platform activity and user reports to enhance its detection capabilities.

Some brands have resorted to establishing their own subreddits, where the company itself moderates the community, in an effort to boost their presence on the platform. According to Mike Moschella, director of analytics at DKC, a marketing and PR firm, Reddit and Wikipedia have become key considerations for brands, as these are platforms where simple press release dissemination is ineffective.

“Reddit is tricky, right? You can’t bullshit Reddit,” Moschella commented. He believes that in an environment where consumers seek precise, personalized answers, brands should articulate their propositions more clearly, moving beyond generic, vague promises of having the best product in their category. (Shopping constitutes a significant portion of Reddit’s activity: Nelson indicated to The Verge that approximately 40 percent of discussions on the platform are commercial in nature.)

“The starting point of all business analytics is this idea that you can have a better price, you have better service, or you can have better quality, but you can’t have all three,” Moschella explained. “If you say [your company’s stock] is the best stock ever in the universe, you can issue that press release a million times, but WallStreetBets [the subreddit] isn’t going to buy it if the fundamentals don’t agree.” Ideally, Moschella suggests, Reddit should compel brands to be more “honest and authentic.”

Whether this ideal is being realized remains an open question. The impact of this new search landscape extends beyond skincare subreddits. In June, 404 Media reported that biohacking subreddits were experiencing a surge of promotional spam related to peptides. On the weight loss subreddit r/loseit, a moderator named Dan (who requested to be identified by his first name only to protect his privacy) has dedicated himself to identifying and removing advertiser content disguised as genuine user activity.

On r/loseit, Dan has encountered covert advertising for a range of products, including food scanning apps, body scanning scales, and GLP-1 providers. He mentioned that moderators have compiled a “shit list of brands” suspected of secret advertising, and mentions of these brands are automatically filtered from the subreddit. Dan noted that typical users are not particular about how they discuss a new gadget, often not even mentioning the exact brand. In contrast, brands tend to stuff keywords, use precise product names, and frame discussions in an overtly positive light.

“The main advantage that we have as people who are trying to stop [brands] from advertising is that they’ve got an agenda that a normal poster doesn’t have, and that is usually fundamentally what shines through and that’s how we spot them,” he explained.

Dan has also observed an increase in posts he suspects are AI-generated, identifiable by specific stylistic cues, such as the final paragraph beginning with “I’m curious to know.” Through a combination of auto-moderation tools and community members actively reporting suspicious ads, r/loseit moderators successfully filter out a significant portion of marketers attempting to promote their products.

“We want it to be human to human because that’s why I liked that subreddit anyway,” Dan stated. “I found it very good for people to speak to one another outside of somewhere that’s constantly advertising to you.”

While self-promotional spam has been present on Reddit for years with varying degrees of success, the current era of AI search manipulation emerges at a time when audiences are already highly inclined to be suspicious of online content.

And for good reason. Marketing practices that have become widespread are now entering public awareness: paid “clipping” campaigns designed to maximize reach on short-form video platforms, bot farms deployed for PR damage control, and marketing stunts later revealed as ad campaigns. Vulture famously declared Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube feeds “fake.” Reddit was supposed to be different. Users adding “reddit” to their search queries was a deliberate act to seek answers free from the SEO clutter that had inundated the web; Reddit content became so trusted that it served as shorthand for “actually useful.”

This spring, reports circulated that a marketing agency orchestrated some of the social media buzz surrounding the indie rock band Geese. The agency’s undisclosed involvement prompted feelings of betrayal among the band’s fans, igniting a separate news cycle within music and entertainment communities, raising questions like, was Geese a “psyop”? Was