If Reddit required face scans to prove you’re human… would you still use it?
With AI bots getting harder to detect, there’s been growing discussion around platforms using biometric verification (like face scans) to confirm real users.
Cool in theory... Reddit is full of bots, fake accounts and garbage engagement. But let’s be real…
Reddit without anonymity isn’t Reddit.
The whole point of this platform is:
Saying things you wouldn’t say elsewhere
Being anonymous without consequences tied to your real identity
Having raw, unfiltered discussions
And now the proposed solution is… scan your face?
But what's the guarantee tech companies not to store or misuse biometric data.
Even if they promise they won’t store it:
No one believes that
Data leaks happen all the time
And once that line is crossed, there’s no going back
On one side, identity verification could:
Reduce bots and fake accounts
Improve trust in conversations
Clean up spam-heavy communities
On the other hand, Reddit has always been built on anonymity, and changes like this could shift how people use the platform entirely.
There are also alternative ideas being floated:
Zero-knowledge proof verification
Device-based authentication
Temporary “human verification” tokens
Two questions for the PH community here:
If you use Reddit, what would you want: fewer bots or actual anonymity?
Should Product Hunt apply the same verification to find and delete bots or fake accounts?
P.S. I am currently working on a pilot with Reddit's ex-CTO to test identity verification on my subreddit. I will check the sentiment of the community at my subreddit r/GrowthHacking and report back here.
Replies
Agen
@daniel_dorne Maybe that's what happens when the social platforms want to become governments of the world virtually :D
Agen
minimalist phone: creating folders
Probably yes, my photos are anyway everywhere. And from my own experience, when I still faced bans because of being a bot, I would welcome this to remove other bots from the platform – to make it authentic.
@busmark_w_nika I second you, hence I am running a pilot with the ex-CTO of Reddit to test if redditors welcome identity verification or fight it.
Should Product Hunt apply the same verification to find and delete bots or fake accounts? What do you think?
Great question, and I think it touches on a fundamental tension in how we build online communities.
As a developer, I'd lean heavily toward zero-knowledge proof verification or device-based authentication over biometric scans. The reason is simple: you can solve the bot problem without creating a new, arguably worse problem , a centralized biometric database that becomes a honeypot for attackers.
Face scans feel like using a sledgehammer to fix a leaky faucet. The real issue isn't identity , it's proof of humanness. Those are two very different things. You don't need to know WHO someone is to confirm they're not a bot.
Reddit's value has always been in the quality of ideas, not the identity behind them. Some of the best technical advice I've ever gotten came from throwaway accounts. Kill anonymity, and you kill that dynamic.
For Product Hunt specifically , I think lightweight verification (like email + device fingerprinting + behavioral signals) would go a long way without crossing into biometric territory. Bots have patterns that are detectable without ever scanning a face.
Curious to hear what comes out of the pilot with your subreddit. That's a bold experiment.
Interesting tension here. The core problem — "we need to know you're real without knowing who you are" — is actually something the crypto/Web3 space has been chipping away at for a while.
Wallet-based sign-in (like Sign In With Ethereum) gives you cryptographic proof that a real person controls a private key, without collecting a name, face, or ID. It's not perfect — you can create multiple wallets — but it raises the cost of bot operations significantly without asking users to hand over biometric data.
The face scan approach feels like solving a trust problem with surveillance infrastructure. Even if Apple's Face ID keeps everything on-device today, you're still normalizing a pattern that's one policy change away from becoming something very different.
I'd rather see platforms explore cryptographic identity — passkeys, wallet signatures, zero-knowledge proofs — than biometric gates. The whole point of pseudonymous communities is that your reputation is built on what you say, not on a scan of your face.
Everyone has bad experiences - Reddit is a place where angry old mods shut you down and threaten to ban your account. To me Reddit is like my old AMC Hornet, wanting to be a Tesla. All they did was add a fresh coat of paint and AI copilot in the back seat.
The IPO was Reddit walking into a Tesla dealership saying "value me like a tech company." Wall Street bought it but it's still a Hornet running on volunteer labor, tribal knowledge, and a constant threat from those angry mods and AI.
Wall Street bought their story, and now they're scrambling for new income streams. It feels they're lining as another control node for users.
I feel like people will eventually find ways to bypass face verification or hack the system, so I’m not sure if it’s something we can truly trust.
But at the same time, I do think fake messages generated by bots are a real problem.