Amid Wednesday's updates for moderators and developers, Reddit delivered a setback to the open web by officially discontinuing support for RSS feeds.
The company attributes this decision to RSS evolving into a 'common surface for large-scale scraping and automated abuse.'
In its announcement, Reddit acknowledged RSS's status as a 'beloved part of the open web' and thanked users, while simultaneously announcing a March 2027 shutdown for its public API.
Technical details confirm that support for RSS will terminate on November 13.
Originally known as Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary, RSS is a web feed standard that gained massive popularity during the blogging era for aggregating content in news readers. Although Google previously dominated this space, it shuttered its service in 2013, allowing independent apps like Feedly to take over the market.
This move coincides with Reddit monetizing its forums through AI licensing deals. The company reported a 24% year-over-year increase in 'other revenue,' totaling $43 million, suggesting they are protecting this lucrative data asset.
For moderators dependent on RSS for alerts, Reddit recommends switching to the Discord RelayDevvit app. While migration is advised before the November 13 deadline, they admitted there is no viable alternative for RSS feeds used outside of community management.
Moderators have voiced concerns, fearing the change will make the platform unmanageable, while users lament that RSS was their preferred method of consumption.
Public API access will also cease by March 2027, which will impact social listening tools, research applications, and AI assistants, forcing them to abandon free data access in favor of commercial arrangements.
Reddit also implemented safeguards for 'Old Reddit,' limiting access to logged-in moderators and recent users to counter 'abusive scraping and automated traffic.' Access for logged-in users will be restricted to those active within the last 90 days.
Developers of approved third-party apps must register their bots by January 12, 2027, or risk losing API privileges.
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