Reddit just pulled the plug on the Internet Archive. As of August 11, 2025, the Wayback Machine can only save a frozen screenshot of Reddit’s front page, everything else is off limits.
“Only screenshots of the Reddit homepage will be archived… no posts, profiles, or comments.”
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/08/reddit-blocks-internet-archive-to-end-sneaky-ai-scraping/
This isn’t about bandwidth, it’s about control. Reddit now lets users wipe post histories, delete entire threads, and nuke accounts. The Wayback Machine was the last way to prove something existed before it was quietly erased. Now that door is shut.
“Reddit told The Verge that the Wayback Machine will no longer be able to crawl post detail pages, comments, or profiles.”
https://gizmodo.com/reddit-is-blocking-the-wayback-machine-from-archiving-posts-2000641546
Follow the money: Reddit signed $60M+ licensing deals with Google and OpenAI. The Archive offered free access to the same material, so it had to go.
“Reddit has taken an increasingly hardline stance against companies that attempt to use its data without such arrangements.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/reddit-is-restricting-its-availability-to-the-internet-archives-wayback-machine/ar-AA1KjTQJ
And here’s the shadow game: with no public archive, bots can post garbage, delete it, and repost without leaving a footprint. Mod edits, stealth bans, and silent removals vanish with them.
“Reddit has seen cases where AI firms accessed Reddit’s content via the Wayback Machine… including deleted or removed content.”
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/reddit-locks-out-wayback-machine-to-stop-ai-from-scraping-old-posts/articleshow/123244700.cms
They’ve turned the internet’s memory hole into a business model.