Reddit CEO says facial verification may be introduced. Ostensibly to prevent bots.
But we all know how dangerous this can be. But most likely Reddit users will just accept it.
Although they have a great free analogue right under their noses - Lemmy. Which is many times better than its competitor.
I wish more people would discover Lemmy, but that’s unlikely.
Making a new Reddit account as a human in 2026 genuinely sucks too most subreddits just automod ban new accounts with low comment karma… but if every popular sub has said automod… yeah. And then 99% of the front page is astroturfed anyway
Because of the current situation, on Reddit I tend to delete my posts older than about a month and then delete my account at least once a year, and register a new one with a randomly generated username.
It’s not because I’m malicious or intend to spam. It’s because I want to participate and to contribute, but am fearful of being arrested for behavior that is in no way violent, threatening, or dangerous, but which may be politically targeted. I don’t want my posts to make me a target, and I don’t want my posts to be tied together.
I use VPNs and block browser fingerprinting.
Before this, I had three accounts that were more than a decade old(one for personal stuff, one for work, and one for NSFW stuff, to keep everything separate).
But there is NO way in hell that I will use Reddit for even one day if there is a face ID requirement.
I don’t even see a point in commenting on the current version of reddit anymore (and I haven’t for a couple of years). You’re either replying to bots or about to get into a useless argument with a bad faith actor. I’ll gladly comment on reddit alternatives because it’s a better experience for me and it’s more likely to get other people to make the switch.
FYI that just makes you stand out like a sore thumb. With the current state of user tracking, it’s better to blend in than to look like you’re hiding something.
Without blocking browser fingerprinting, they can identify your specific computer regardless of how many different accounts you use or how many different browsers you use.
Correct browser fingerprinting blocking does NOT block attempts to fingerprint. It just generates false information for their fingerprint detection tools.
So reddit admin targets me, no permaban because I abandon accounts after a second violation, or a first now, just in the first week, for something not even close to promoting violence that they held up on appeal.
Can I make an anonymous account? Like use a vpn, I already use a temporary email like guerilla mail to sign up. Or could I even use Tor to access? I actually kind of need it for networking on some of my work stuff.
Even my 10 year old account is banned from posting. And I have thousands in karma.
They’re doing some other non karma score now, which is probably ML fingerprinting or something.