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Reddit fights spam with LLMs
Reddit said it is deploying large language models (LLMs) to combat a surge in spam that it says is “much of which is itself generated by the same technology.”
“In a development that underscores the paradoxical nature of the modern internet, Reddit has announced it is deploying large language models (LLMs) to combat a surge in spam — much of which is itself generated by the same technology”
The platform reported blocking 23 million spam views per day and catching roughly 25,000 new spam posts daily using updated tools.
Reddit said it reduced user exposure to spam by 20% from January to March compared to the previous three-month period.
In its description of the approach, Reddit said the tools are designed to catch “highly subtle, coordinated patterns of fake behavior and artificial hype.”
Faster enforcement, more AI
Reddit said it also looks for suspicious activity “right when an account is created to stop suspicious actors before they ever get the chance to post.”
On enforcement against harmful content, Reddit wrote that the average time between detection and enforcement on harmful content containing hate or violence is down to under five seconds.
Reddit said it has “expanded our automated systems” to support enforcement against hate and violence in all English text content on Reddit, with more languages rolling out soon.
The TechCrunch report framed the move as platforms having “no choice but to fight fire with fire” as LLMs make spam easier to generate at scale.
Human review still required
Reddit’s own materials emphasized that its automated work is meant to happen before a post is ever seen by a human, saying “Our most effective work happens before a post is ever seen by a human.”
“An abundance of promotional material integrated into media that consumers cannot quickly recognize as advertising moved into Reddit, and the company is working effortlessly to remove it from its platform”
The TechCrunch report added that “AI content moderation must be paired with human moderation to get the most effective results.”
Reddit described a layered approach in which sitewide policies are enforced at scale by internal Safety teams using “a combination of automated tooling and human review.”
In the same framing, TechCrunch said Reddit’s LLM tools are intended to catch patterns that older systems once missed, quoting Reddit’s blog post: “We leverage LLMs to catch the highly subtle, coordinated patterns of fake behavior and artificial hype that older systems once missed.”
