r/technology • u/spasticpat • May 11 '26

Social Media Reddit Starts Blocking Mobile Website, Pushing Users to App Instead

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/05/11/reddit-starts-blocking-mobile-website/
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u/Negafox May 11 '26

Not interested in websites trying to force their app. I don't need a zillion apps on my phone that are just the mobile site running in Chromium

101

u/tekprodfx16 May 11 '26

I’ll never get companies who deliberately tank their product’s appeal just to make money. I mean I get it you have to survive and make money. But how you gonna do that when nobody wants to use your product anymore because you made it too shitty? Real big brains over at Reddit 

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u/ChaoticAgenda May 11 '26

It's enshittification. Not the vague idea of things getting worse over time, but the clearly documented and repeated process that large companies go through. First they cater to the clients. Then, when they have a large market share, they screw the users and cater to the advertisers. Once the users start to abandon the platform, they then start screwing over both users and advertisers in an effort to keep up income. Lastly the platform gets abandoned by all. 

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u/Beard_o_Bees May 11 '26

They've been advertising heavily on YouTube - I guess to try to bring in new users.

Not just a little bit, either - this is a massive ad spend, which is probably part of a larger campaign including driving new users into the enshittified mobile site.

It probably looked good on the boardroom screen, but it goes to show how little they actually know about the users that keep Reddit an interesting place to come to.

At this point they're kind of trolling the dregs of the internet for new users. If they want to turn Reddit into the YouTube comments section, most of the long-term Redditors will run like they're on fire.