Reddit’s CEO wants Microsoft to pay for its content

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman didn’t pull any punches with Microsoft in the interview The Verge. He called out Microsoft and other AI search engines such as Anthropic and Perplexity for not paying for the data they take from Reddit, some of which has already been blocked from Huffman’s website.

Reddit has deals in place with companies like Google and OpenAI to get compensation for using its posts and information. Huffman says Microsoft, however, has never stepped up to the table to discuss its use of Reddit content in its AI search.

“Without these agreements, we have no say or knowledge of how our information is disclosed and how it is used, which has put us in a position to block people who were not willing to agree with us. “I would like our data to be used or not,” Huffman said The Verge’s deputy editor Alex Heath.

Huffman says that if Microsoft and other AI search sites continue to use Reddit data without proper compensation, they should be banned. He doesn’t want to do that because “it’s really painful to block these companies.”

Reddit has begun cracking down on search engines that are deleting information from its various categories and communities. The website vowed to block unauthorized data scraping in June by updating its Robot Exclusion Protocol (robots.txt) and has already blocked Bing from accessing data from Reddit, a fact confirmed by Microsoft’s head of search Jordi Ribas on X.

Earlier this month, a source confirmed to Engadget‘s Will Shanklin that Microsoft’s refusal to comply with Reddit’s terms of service led to Bing’s ban. A Reddit spokesperson also said, “Anyone who accesses Reddit content must comply with our policies, including those in place to protect reddit artists. We’re selective about who we work with and we trust them with massive access to Reddit content.”