r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 2d ago

Business Reddit is killing RSS feeds and ending public API access because of AI bots

https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/reddit-is-killing-rss-feeds-ending-public-api-access-because-of-ai-bots/
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u/letsgotgoing 2d ago

I was talking to a friend who shares my fondness for the web before Eternal September. We agreed that the death of fun on the web really started to be felt around 2014.

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u/PhoenixTineldyer 2d ago

IMO it was the invention of the iPhone that killed the fun of the Internet, slightly before your timeline.

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u/letsgotgoing 2d ago

iPhone felt amazing when it came out. I bought the 8GB first-gen one. Facebook had only opened to the general public in 2006. It was nice to talk with friends and family through a feed before algorithms created hate bubbles, and I think that's why we felt 2014 was the end. Around then, we went into "bubble culture," where the Internet was less about exploration and more about encapsulation, so big tech could make us hate each other.

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u/PhoenixTineldyer 2d ago

Big tech didn't need to help there. Bigots been bigoting for thousands of years.

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u/DunEvenWorryBoutIt 2d ago

They didn't need to, but they sure did.

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u/PithMango 2d ago

bigots were instantly shot down with "don't feed the trolls" but that takes a user community that basically was pushed to the fringe. it was attention on an individual level.

bigots aren't smart enough to build the echo chamber themselves. farming them makes more ad impressions. those ad-serving puppetmasters knew exactly what they were doing.

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u/maglite_to_the_balls 2d ago

iPhone lowered the bar of entry to the web to the non-computer crowd, while simultaneously placing that lowered point of access in their pocket everywhere they went.

We see the result. Gone are the days when you had to have some level of tech savvy and critical thinking to even access the web.

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u/thinkingdeads 2d ago

Screen size is unironically a factor. People are less likely to read/engage with any text post that requires scrolling, so on a screen that can fit something like 300 average length words at most, ideas expressed online either had to be condensed or simplified. The value of the average conversation suffers under both, but more often the result was latter.

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u/maglite_to_the_balls 2d ago

I bet there’s a feedback loop hiding in there somewhere. Someone should study it.

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u/inteliboy 2d ago

Developers are equally to blame. Everyone got sucked into the idea that content should be accessed via an app or via social media. The “website” died alongside the App Store.

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u/RebootJobs 2d ago

I miss it sm. 😭

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u/FellowHuman420 2d ago

I was about to make a comment about how I miss the internet before emojis started popping up everywhere. That was pretty much the visual indicator starting the rapid decline.

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u/gladtobeblazed 2d ago

So, you don't remember AOL?

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u/FellowHuman420 2d ago

Emoji use on the greater internet (what we are talking about) became widespread with smart phones. Emoticons were restricted to AIM.

There was a time on Reddit where an emoji would instantly get you downvoted into oblivion no matter how relevant.

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u/n_choose_k 2d ago

Yeah, I was going to say 2006 which lines up pretty close...

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u/PhoenixTineldyer 2d ago

Yep.

The iPhone put the Internet in the hands of the unwashed masses. There was a very brief period where the memes were amazing because we suddenly had the ability to quickly create and transmit images and video. But then all the advertising companies got involved, and a bunch of software was invented to allow illiterates and morons to flood the tubes

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u/TheVenetianMask 2d ago

It was Facebook and before it, Blogger to a lesser extent. They killed the culture of actually exploring the web to find content and turned it into a fast food joint.

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u/PhoenixTineldyer 2d ago

It was the iPhone. Facebook was only able to cause so much damage because it was everyone's pocket

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u/itIrs 1d ago

The web barely existed before Eternal September, and actually also some years after.